Why Support STEM Education?
Supporting STEM education is a strategic marketing imperative and benefits your company:
- Train the next generation, including your kids, to have relevant skills for the fast-evolving future
- Bolster the job growth and economic vitality of your community and company
- Enhance your company reputation as a community partner who cares
- Improve future candidate recruitment competitiveness and succession planning
- Boost employee moral through community service
- Feel satisfied that you’ve given back and paid it forward to create a positive future
How Can I Contribute?
Mentoring
Employees mentor PK-12 students and educators. Examples might include assisting with projects, judging STEM or Engineering fairs, collaborating on projects, answering student questions during a design challenge, or being a pen pal with a student interested in entering the STEM field.
Field Trips and Worksite Tours
Host field trips for PK-12 students to engage in and explore STEM-related spaces (on-site or virtual).
Expert Talks or Demonstrations
STEM experts share their experiences leading up to entering their career and what it is like working as a professional in their field in a formal presentation or through an informal setting like a lunch and learn.
Job Shadowing
Provide opportunities for students and educators to shadow a variety of STEM professions/jobs within the organization.
Immersive Experiences
Offer STEM-based practicum, internship, and/or apprenticeship opportunities for students and educators.
Outreach
Host STEM community events and/or educational programs for PK-12 students, families, and educators. Programs might include showcasing different technologies within the industry, design challenges on site working along side STEM employees, or issuing students a problem from their industry as a design challenge for students to solve and present their solutions back to the industry.
Advocacy
Engage in STEM advocacy efforts through informing, communicating and engaging with local and state political representatives or legislators, other industry leaders, local community leaders, educational leaders, and the greater educational community about industry and workforce needs and educational/training needs to develop the STEM workforce.
Employability Skill Development
Connect with in and out of school educators in our Network to share industry hard skills that need to be developed through STEM education as well as the employability skills needed in industry.
Where Do I Start?
What Are the Current Best Practices?
We've curated this listing of role model and mentoring resources for your reference so you can sustain engaging experiences for those you help. These organizations host webinars and events, participate in conferences, convey exemplary practices and current research, as well as showcase program models and tools for working with girls in STEM.
500 Women Scientists
500 Women Scientists' Request a Woman Scientist platform connects an extensive multidisciplinary network of vetted women in science with anyone who needs to consult a scientist for a news story, invite a keynote speaker or panelist for a conference or workshop, find a woman scientist to collaborate on a project, or serve as a subject matter expert in any capacity.
ACE Mentor Program: Architecture, Construction, Engineering
The ACE Mentor Program of America, Inc. not only engages sponsors and volunteer mentors to expose students to real-world opportunities, it financially supports each student's continued success through scholarships and grants. The ACE program helps to mentor high school students and inspires them to pursue careers in design and construction.
Collaborative for Gender Equity
The Collaborative for Gender Equity in Emerging Technologies website is a resource developed by the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD) as part of a National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education Project. The Gender Equity Collaborative Mentoring Toolkit provides step-by-step guidance for program coordinators on developing and sustaining successful mentoring programs serving their region.
The Connectory
The Connectory makes the connections to STEAM learning opportunities that inspire young people to explore, discover, and create.
FabFems
The FabFems Project is an international database of women who are inspiring role models for young women. It is free and accessible to young women, parents, girl-serving STEM programs, and other organizations working to increase career awareness and interest in STEM. The FabFems Project is brought to you by the National Girls Collaborative Project.
IF/THEN Collection
The IF/THEN® Collection is the largest free resource of its kind dedicated to increasing access to authentic and relatable images of real women in STEM. Here in this digital library, you will find thousands of photos, videos and other assets that authentically represent women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The content features careers as diverse as shark tagging, fashion design, and training Olympic athletes, and nudges public perceptions in a more realistic direction that illuminates the importance of STEM everywhere.
MentorNet
MentorNet is a virtual mentoring organization leveraging technology to match STEM students in higher education with professionals working in STEM fields. MentorNet seeks to provide all STEM students in the United States with access to effective mentorship in a vibrant community committed to student persistence and success.
Mentoring in a Box - Technical Women at Work
Mentoring-in-a-Box: Technical Women at Work is a resource from the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). This resource offers activities, resources, and tools to support a mentoring pair, presented in an easy-to-use format. Visit www.ncwit.org/resources for more related NCWIT resources.
Million Girls Moonshot
The Million Girls Moonshot seeks to re-imagine who can engineer, who can build, who can make. It will inspire and prepare the next generation of innovators by engaging one million more girls in STEM learning opportunities through afterschool and summer programs over the next 5 years. The Moonshot will be active in out-of-school programs in all 50 states, leveraging the Mott-funded 50 State Afterschool Network, which has access to more than 10 million youth and 100,000 afterschool programs across the country.
Million Women Mentors
Million Women Mentors (MWM) is an engagement campaign and national call to action that mobilizes corporations, government entities, non-profit and higher education groups, around the imperative of mentoring girls and young women in STEM fields. The National Girls Collaborative Project is a Founding Partner of the MWM Initiative.
National Girls Collaborative
NGCP believes STEM skills can be acquired by anyone, and fostered in everyone. Our initiatives build confidence and create a community of “lifelong STEM activators.” Through the power of collaboration, we spark curiosity and develop a passion for STEM. We also strengthen the capacity of programs by producing and sharing exemplary practices, research, and program models.
National Mentoring Partnership (MENTOR)
MENTOR's mission is to fuel the quality and quantity of mentoring relationships for America’s young people and to close the mentoring gap. MENTOR develops quality resources to advance mentoring program effectiveness and innovation, while sharing knowledge among mentoring programs, and works to drive increased investment to sustain and grow mentoring programs nationwide.
SciGirls Role Model Strategies
SciGirls provides a national PBS Kids series with the mission of changing how millions of girls ages 8-13 think about STEM, a safe, social networking site for kids on PBS and research-based activities, professional development and support for educators nationwide. SciGirls Role Model Strategies: Encouraging Girls to Consider STEM Careersoffers basic training for role models, introducing them to best practices for their volunteer efforts.
Techbridge
Techbridge offers a downloadable resource for effective outreach by role models and corporations. Techbridge also offers a new online training for role models.
Women in Bio
Women in Bio is an organization of professionals committed to promoting careers, leadership, and entrepreneurship of women in the life sciences.
Women@NASA
The Women@NASA contains a collection of videos and essays showcasing women who work across a variety of departments at NASA. The site contains resources and stories to inspire girls in STEM, information for K-12 educators, and serves as a hub for women and outreach at NASA.
