DiJeana Posley, MSM, SHRM-SCP – Roche Diagnostics U.S. Inclusion & Belonging Office Note: This article originally appear in the July 2025 issue of LTEN Focus on Training Magazine.
Rapid advancements in technology and science combined with evolving customer expectations, regulatory changes, and manufacturing and supply chain risks continue to shape the life sciences industry. Despite these potentially disruptive forces, 75% of global life sciences executives remain optimistic about the industry’s growth, according to Deloitte’s 2025 Life Sciences Outlook Survey.
To help develop the next generation of life sciences professionals who will fuel this growth, Roche Diagnostics, in partnership with TiER1 Performance, created Career Quest, an annual event focused on providing high school students with early exposure and hands-on experiences engaging with careers in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM). The event uses interactive activities to help students understand possible career paths they could pursue in STEAM.
“Introducing students to STEAM early opens doors they may not have known existed,” says Candy Gee, Head of Inclusion & Belonging at Roche Diagnostics US. “It’s about expanding knowledge, nurturing curiosity, and laying the foundation for a future with the most innovation possible.”
In November 2023, Roche hosted the inaugural Career Quest at its Indianapolis, Indiana, campus, engaging 60 high school students from two local high schools. The following October, 60 more students from the same schools participated, and Roche replicated the event at company locations in Santa Clara and Pleasanton, California, and in Tucson, Arizona. In February, Career Quest returned to the Roche Indianapolis campus twice, impacting more than 200 high school students in one week. As Roche prepares to host Career Quest in Indianapolis a third time this November as part of its annual Week of Giving, the organization continues to plan for long-term expansion and sustainment.
To create, market, and implement an engaging event that could be replicated and scaled across locations, Roche used an event planning framework that applies design-thinking principles to enhance the participant experience before, during, and after an event. Apply the following human-centered design approach to your next event to impact participants’ mindsets and emotions and drive desired behavior change.
In August of 2023, a cross-functional team of senior leaders and learning strategists joined forces to plan the inaugural Career Quest. After identifying the target audience, the team aligned on the event’s purpose and desired outcomes, which included the following goals:
To brainstorm strategies for meeting these objectives, the team used TiER1’s “5 Es” event planning framework, which considers what participants should think, feel, and do at every stage of an impactful experience. Using the framework as a guide, the team mapped out key moments to impact and engage participants during five key phases of the event: Entice, Enter, Engage, Exit, and Expand.
Below are the planning considerations for each of the five phases and how Roche applied this framework to create an unforgettable Career Quest experience.
When designing the Entice phase, focus on attracting participants through intentional invitations. Consider building anticipation through pre-event activities or mailers, like sending participants a themed itinerary or surprise gift.
The Career Quest planning team launched a marketing and communications campaign at the participating high schools to generate excitement among students and at Roche’s Indianapolis campus to recruit event volunteers. Materials included a hype video and an informational one-pager, which school counselors used to promote the event, as well as print and digital event posters.
For this phase, focus on setting the stage. Provide context, goals, and objectives ahead of time or at the event’s start to set the tone and create clarity. Consider welcoming participants with energetic music and greeters and sharing a list of guiding principles for participation.
Upon their arrival, students were organized into five color-coded small groups and received event-branded swag, including a T-shirt, water bottle, and drawstring bag. An opening ceremony featured high-energy music, an animated video that provided an overview of the event, and a call-to-action that encouraged students to actively participate, lean into curiosity, and share their learnings to earn prizes.
Focus on creating an experience that energizes and inspires participation. Think through the design of interactions and overall pacing of the schedule. Consider incorporating surprise elements, time for breaks, gamification, and a mix of group and independent time.
After aligning on the Career Quest theme, the planning team designed five 20-minute learning lab–like “exploration stations” (one for each letter of the STEAM acronym) that featured interactive gamified challenges related to specific careers. In their small groups, students embarked on their “Career Quest” by visiting each exploration station, learning about different roles within the featured career field, and completing challenges related to those roles to earn stickers. Roche technicians, engineers, and compliance managers helped facilitate the challenges at each station, providing students opportunities to interact with and learn from experienced professionals. Students completed their quest when they earned all five station stickers.
At the science station, for example, students learned about the job responsibilities of a research and development engineer, a manufacturing engineer, and a manufacturing technician. Students also learned how blood glucose meters work and then practiced using a meter with a control solution. At the end, they played Hungry Hungry Enzymes, a variation of the children’s game Hungry Hungry Hippos, but instead of apples, the hippos gobbled up enzymes.
Each station followed a templated approach with branded creative treatment for the facilitator guides, role cards, and station posters and stickers, making the event easy to take on the road to other Roche campuses. The gamified challenges at the other exploration stations included:
Focus on creating memories and momentum at the event’s conclusion. Consider capturing and celebrating participants’ shared achievements through summary drawing exercises, voting or survey tools, and group photos.
During the closing ceremony, students shared their learnings, “aha!” moments, and questions. The most engaged and curious students received prizes for their participation.
Focuses on commemorating and activating the experience after the event. Make event insights actionable and encourage individual accountability into the future. Consider scheduling check-in meetings, sending event photos and resources via email, and sharing content on a microsite.
The planning team collected event feedback from participants and school faculty through surveys. Based on this feedback, the planning team noted key lessons, which it has applied to subsequent Career Quest events to ensure continuous improvement of the experience. These include:
Student and faculty feedback will continue to influence future iterations of Career Quest, which Roche hopes to expand to even more locations across the U.S. As one of the largest biotech companies in the world, Roche understands the power of exposing students to corporate environments and connecting them with STEAM professionals in their communities where those businesses are located.
“Inspiring students through STEAM isn’t just about sparking interest—it’s about showing them they belong in the spaces where innovation happens,” says Lori Satterfield, Senior Manager, Community Engagement. “Today’s encouragement plants the seeds for tomorrow’s breakthroughs in science, technology, and beyond.”
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