We attended the 2015 Congress of Future Scientists and Technologists along with our son and it was a very informative and inspiring event. I am amazed at the amount of negative comments and can only attribute it to not having a full understanding of what these conferences are actually about. This is not a class, although through Washington Adventist University, you may receive 1 college credit if you complete their course requirements. This is not something special to put on your college application. It is an experience that brings together a group of scientists, visionaries, and motivational speaker to broaden your child’s world view and inspire them to pursue their dreams in the field of STEM. Oftentimes schools are greatly lacking in STEM content and are not geared toward highly motivated students. Everyone leads different lives, however this was a great opportunity for our child to meet a Nobel Prize winner, Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, or Entrepreneurs like Dean Kaem in person. Our son left with a renewed sense of confidence and purpose and as soon as we got home started working again on experimental projects that had given him difficulty. He also left with a bunch of business cards and contact information from fellow attendees and is already starting to collaborate with them on different projects.
As far as the cost of the program, we travel for our professional conferences each year and you must pay for your membership, each event/class, travel, lodging, and food. We easily expend triple the cost of this conference, however, we feel the benefit derived is immeasurable. The cost and time involved in putting something like this on is enormous. We don’t begrudge any compensation that the company putting on the Congress (or any conference we attend) makes- if we could put the Congress on ourselves, we would. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed the Congress and would have paid to attend ourselves. Everything we do in life is an investment, it’s just a matter of where your priorities lie.