Roxbury Community College in Boston used virtual reality as one of the hands-on topics in its paid summer STEM programme for high-school students. In summer 2023, 30 teens were paid through a city grant to spend the summer learning different areas of science and technology on the college's campus, rather than taking an ordinary summer job.
The programme's stated aim is to build early interest in science careers. According to CBS Boston, the programme says there are not enough trained workers to fill Boston's life science jobs, especially workers of color from diverse neighbourhoods, and getting students interested early can steer them toward careers they may not have considered.
How VR was used
Virtual reality was one of 10 hands-on topics in the 2023 programme, alongside biology with dissections, 3D printing, robotics and drones. Students used a tethered HTC VR headset with two motion controllers; one was photographed working in a virtual painting application, with the headset view mirrored on a classroom wall screen.
Programme history
The college had advertised the programme the previous year: a free, month-long 2022 edition running from July 18 to August 18 on campus listed VR alongside the maker space and 3D printing, and promotional posts that June named virtual reality among drones, robotics, 3D printing and emergency room simulation.
The college's vice president of academic affairs, Hillel Sims, has described the high-school programmes as having run for several summers. For summer 2025 the college said 30 students would take part in the High School RCC STEM Experience, and its summer programmes were to pay students $15 an hour; the topics listed for that year were drones, 3D printing, physics, chemistry and biotechnology, with VR not among them.
