Women make up 28% of the STEM workforce. Of that percentage, only 5% of those women are women of color.
Girlstart, a nonprofit with the mission of providing STEM opportunities to young women, is looking to change that by offering opportunities to women early on in their lifetimes.
With the financial help of Burlington-based life science company MilliporeSigma since 2017, the nonprofit has been able to reach 53,000 underserved girls nationally through hosting summer camps and after school programs.
“Our employee and community engagement strategy focuses on two areas: science education and scientific research. On the science education side, one component is direct to student programs. As far as partnerships go, GirlStart is in direct alignment with us by directly serving students to increase equity and access to people of color and young girls,” said Melissa Hackmeier, head of employee & community engagement for MilliporeSigma.
Girlstart hosts 14 full-time employees and receives over 800 volunteers annually. MilliporeSigma has 22,000 employees globally and 59 manufacturing sites that create products focused on scientific discovery, biomanufacturing and testing services.
The program has gone on for 10 years, in that time Girlstart data shows that 73% of girls who participate in Girlstart’s summer camp program one time graduate from college and that percentage increases as girls enroll in more camps.
Of Girlstart girls who attended camp three or more times, 85% graduated from college.
“One of the really strong aspects of GirlStart is the impact and ability to measure the outcomes and do longitudinal studies about the campers interest in STEM long term,” Hackmeier said.
The nonprofit operates locally in Austin, Texas and nationally by sending out camp boxes to their satellite kits to various areas of the country, including Boston.
Girlstart currently has a presence in the Waltham Boys and Girls Club as well as the greater Lowell Boys and Girls Club for the past five years.
According to Summer Camp and Community STEM Program Coordinator Hannah Winkler, the creation of a Girlstart box was important so that “campers, no matter where they were — even if they weren't able to join a zoom call — could still have a Girlstart summer camp experience."
In order to increase accessibility, the camp participants get everything mailed to them, such as craft supplies and technology materials. In past years, campers have built mock Mars Rovers and other robotics systems.
For in-person, satellite locations Girlstart sends over their STEM CREW. Crew in this case standing for “creative, resourceful, empowered women,”
These women are usually volunteers who are students or potentially certified teachers. They get trained in Austin and then some get the chance to fly to satellite locations and they lead camp for the whole week.
Some satellite locations bring on local college students who work as paid interns to lead camp.
As Girlstart expands nationally, the nonprofit takes in various factors such as if there are resources in particular to expand their STEM Crew, if local universities can help implement programs and if there are local Title One schools where primarily 86% of their student population is on free or reduced lunches.
The hope behind expanding nationally is to stay involved in local schools long term rather than only coming each summer.
