DURANT, OK -- 20 high school and college students have spent the last four days learning what it takes to make it big once they make it out of school. The program is called the STEM Academy.

The students gathered at Southeastern Oklahoma State University Thursday have a whole new outlook on what it takes to succeed in a global economy.

"Something like this opens your eyes to many possibilities I believe," said Rasheed Lowery. Lowery is a student at ECU, but has spent the last four days taking part in the STEM Youth Academy.

"It stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics."

The camp helps young people learn a variety of subjects by working on different aspects of a single project.

"So what the kids had to build is some type of recycling machine that had to separate waste and benefit a community," said STEM Academy Leader, Scott Fry. He says the goal of the course is to help students be more successful when they leave school.

"The whole summer camp is about building workplace skills, so we worked on team building, leadership collaboration, all of those things," Fry said.

And while students say the course is fun, it's also challenging.

"The stress levels have been pretty high today but we want that because that's what it is going to be like in the real workplace," said Lowery.

Thursday, students presented their creations before graduating, and STEM organizers are hopeful that the skills students learned at camp will equate to more job opportunities in the future.