TSMC Arizona interns teach local Boys & Girls Club kids about semiconductor industry

PHOENIX — TSMC Arizona and the Boys & Girls Club of the Valley recently partnered on a new event designed to teach children about the semiconductor industry and encourage them to pursue engineering careers.

The event brought 250 Boys & Girls Club students together with 280 TSMC Arizona interns at the Arizona Science Center last week as a part of the semiconductor company’s annual Community Involvement Day.

Marcia Mintz, president and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley, said students ages 9-14 were given the opportunity to explore museum exhibits with the interns and ask questions about semiconductor chips and engineering.

“We chose kids who have expressed interest in science or technology. We do a lot of STEM programming at Boys & Girls Club of the Valley, so we know kids that get very excited about the STEM programs we deliver,” Mintz said. “And we also wanted to make sure we chose kids who had never been to the Science Center, who really didn’t know about what a career in science or technology might look like.”

TSMC Arizona also presented the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley with a $100,000 grant for STEM education.

TSMC Arizona intern says kids were curious about chips

Arianna Balsamo is a TSMC intern and an electrical engineering student at the University of Central Florida. She said the kids asked about her current role at TSMC and what electronics she works on.

“They were curious about how those chips were in the phones. Because the first thing our [TSMC] president told them was that our chips are like the brain of our phones or our laptops. So, they were just confused because they know brains are pretty big and then our phone is pretty small. So, I just told them that our chips are really, really tiny and actually we can’t see them with our eyes,” she said.

Balsamo said the event was personal for her because she attended Boys & Girls Club summer camps when she was in middle school.

“Just being able to be in an internship where they recognize this community was amazing,” she said.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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