Our team has organized and executed over twenty events in various facilities throughout the Silicon Valley. At each of the events, we exposed and encouraged girls, specifically underrepresented and minority groups, to be at part of STEM fields. We first introduced our team and program to the audience, then asked questions to gauge the audience's knowledge on STEM, and also had the attendees fill out a before-event survey. We shared various STEM careers and then introduced two career links at each event. These STEM career links ranged from a career in medicine to engineering. We concluded each event by distributing prizes to participants. Each girl was then given an after-survey to gauge the usefulness and progress of our organization's goal. We concluded that the attendees' interests in STEM increased, likewise they were satisfied with what they had learned through our program. Participants overall enjoyed the program and gained insightful knowledge about STEM. Many students suggested adding more activities, if time permitted. The girls appeared enthused and smiles spread over everyone’s faces throughout the day's presentation and outreach activities.Although our target audience is girls, we were open to sharing STEM with boys. STEM careers, in general, are underrepresented career choices, and thus, we wanted to spread the message to all students. Many parents also were interested in participating, and they worked alongside their children and helped out.
For our team, the process has been extremely rewarding and valuable. We had the chance to meet girls from all backgrounds and learn their interests—whether it be designing their own playhouses or dreaming up new technologies. A career in STEM can break the cycle of poverty for many girls and will drastically change their and their families' lives. This brings our team joy and provides the energy we need to continue spreading awareness of STEM.
In our surveys, a question was titled “What can we improve on?” The majority of girls stated they wanted to do more activities. This greatly excites our team because such response shows that we have engaged girls in our STEM activities.
The before and after surveys showed that the girls' enthusiasm for STEM increased by an average of 80%. We feel that our campaign of spreading awareness has benefited girls and will encourage them to pursue STEM careers in college.
Below shows a sample of the responses from attendees.