Girls STEM academy caters specifically to girls aged 11 through 19 to get them excited to study a STEM major in college and enter the workforce in STEM. GSA’s initiatives will help stimulate interest in STEM for middle and high school girls in the state of Colorado.
The founder of GSA researched the crisis facing our society with a tremendous shortage of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields, both in colleges and in the workforce. To inspire girls into STEM, she gave a TED talk on this topic.
She experienced this problem firsthand. In her Mathcounts competition’s final round for all schools in Denver and three other large school districts, as she was called to stage, she was the only girl surrounded by 9 boys. As she walked into stage, she wondered “Where are the girls?” Even in her current advanced math class in school, Multivariable Calculus, there is only one other girl and the rest are boys. One can only wonder – “Where are the girls?”
She reached out to several local schools in Colorado including metro areas of Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs to assess if they have any programs in place to keep middle and high school girls educated about STEM careers and provide guidance for apprenticeships to work with industry leaders. She found out that almost all schools, including her, lack such initiatives.
She decided that she want to do something to change this. So, she started Girls STEM Academy: a teenage girls’ led movement to inspire middle and high school girls to study and pursue careers in STEM.
Per a major Microsoft study of over 11,000 people, the problem starts in middle school, when girls interest in STEM peaks and drops quickly by the time they reach 17. GSA wants to change this by keeping girls interested in STEM throughout middle and high school until they enter college. Girls will be more interested if they see fellow students engaging in fun STEM activities. GSA is unique because it will be run by teenage girls for teenage girls to get Colorado students into STEM fields.
It is time we change this. The jobs of the future such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and space exploration require strong skills in STEM. Some of the greatest challenges we face in the world today such as climate change and using renewable energy require strong skills in STEM. If women don’t actively participate in this, the labor shortage in these fields will become acute. If women don’t actively work in these fields, the products designed by men may not work for women. GSA is ready to help change the narrative!