RCSJ STEM discovery day gives South Jersey students college experience

More than 100 South Jersey high school students spent a day inside Rowan College of South Jersey labs and nursing spaces, doing the kind of hands-on work that local employers say they need from the next generation of workers. The event was built to do more than showcase a campus. It was designed to push students into real STEM problem-solving and show how college connects to jobs in medicine, research, engineering and technology.

RCSJ held STEM Discovery Day at its Gloucester Campus in March as part of NJ STEM Month 2026, bringing in students from 11 high schools: Cumberland Regional, Delsea Regional, Gateway Regional, Glassboro, Gloucester County Institute of Technology, Millville, Pitman Senior High, Vineland, Washington Township, West Deptford and Woodbury Senior High. Students rotated through workshops, toured the nursing building and explored lab space in Scott Hall, getting a close look at the pace and expectations of college-level STEM study.

The day was intentionally practical. RCSJ Nursing introduced students to Ann, an adult patient simulator, giving them a look at the tools used to train future health care workers. Coriell Institute for Medical Research led a DNA extraction exercise using the salting-out method and household items, while The Wistar Institute guided students through cancer-research exploration built around hands-on investigation and data analysis. Those activities matter because they mirror the analytical thinking and experimentation that RCSJ says define its STEM division.

That division spans engineering, agribusiness, physics, mathematics, bioscience technology and cybersecurity, with two 3+1 programs in computing informatics and data analytics. RCSJ also says it offers research lab experiences, personalized advisement and some of the lowest tuition rates in New Jersey, a combination that positions the college as a lower-cost path into technical and scientific careers for students deciding whether to stay close to home.

The Discovery Day event also fit into a larger pipeline strategy. On March 12, 2024, RCSJ signed its Collegiate High School program with 24 local high schools, including five in Cumberland County and 14 in Gloucester County, along with four parochial schools. That program is intended to help students earn college credit and prepare for college rigor before graduation, extending the same idea behind Discovery Day: get students comfortable with college early, before the choice of major or career path hardens.

RCSJ said the event was supported by the NJ STEM Pathways Network and an American Chemical Society Prepare CTP seed grant, with industry and institutional partners including Bayshore Center at Bivalve, Coriell Institute, Dow Chemical Company, East Oak Animal Hospital, Johnson Matthey and The Wistar Institute. The broader message was clear: South Jersey’s STEM pipeline is being built now, and the college is trying to pull students into it before they leave high school.