Bridging STEM to the Real World

STEM occupations are expected to experience rapid growth within the next decade. However, there is a gender gap that persists in the STEM workforce. There is a need for more girls and women pursuing STEM degrees and careers. Not because of the vast gender gap alone, but due to the fact that innovation is intrinsically tied to diverse human experiences. In order to address this problem, it all begins with access to STEM outreach opportunities for K-12, race and ethnic representation in STEM professions, and empowerment for young girls. 

Access to STEM outreach activities, such as afterschool, weekend, and summer programming, have the potential to provide exposure and create a sense of curiosity. According to the Afterschool Alliance, results from their national survey, America after 3pm, suggests that parents understand the importance of learning STEM in afterschool programs. However, the issue exists that not all opportunities are evenly distributed between families with lower and higher incomes. Survey results revealed that higher income students have a better variety of STEM afterschool program offerings, such as technology, engineering, and computer science activities, compared to lower income students. Other barriers reported by parents included programs that are too expensive, no transportation to and from programs, and the lack of available programs. This data represented by the Afterschool Alliance suggests that afterschool STEM programs offer a wide range of benefits, but millions of youth underrepresented in STEM are missing out.

The representation of race and ethnicity in STEM matters. Observing a STEM professional that has something in common, such as race and ethnic background, can have a long-lasting impression for youth. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Science Board suggests that Black, Latina/Latino, and other underrepresented minority groups in the STEM workforce are less likely to have a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to White and Asian groups. In addition, only ¼ employed Black and Latina/Latino adults represent the STEM workforce and ¾ of the STEM workforce are represented by White and Asian adults. Furthermore, this data suggests that there is a need for more representation of race and ethnicity in the STEM workforce.

Empowerment for young girls is needed in order to pursue STEM. According to the State of Girls and Women in STEM, K-12 young girls of color from low socioeconomic status impacted by race, class, ethnicity, and gender can hinder their long-term participation in STEM. Women in higher education are less likely to earn degrees in engineering (22%), computer science (20%), and physics (21%) compared to degrees in psychology, biological sciences, and social sciences. Women STEM professionals are more represented in STEM fields such as social science (65%) and life science (48%), and less represented in computer science (26%) and engineering (16%). In addition, the STEM workforce is represented by less than 10% of Black and Latina women. This data suggests that there is a need for more young girls and women from Black and Latina backgrounds to be represented in STEM.

Early engagement can make all the difference in how a young girl perceives STEM. While some organizations provide STEM programs, experiencing STEM in action with a STEM professional can add inspiration that may have a long-lasting impression with K-12 Black and Latina young girls. This is why it is essential to showcase how STEM skills translate to real world careers when creating STEM outreach opportunities for K-12 organizations. To address the problem, the solution is to create strategic partnerships with K-12, industry, non-profit, and community organizations. Creating these strategic partnerships will aid with showcasing experiments that cater to how STEM skills can translate to real world jobs and providing access to and volunteer opportunities for STEM professionals from various racial and ethnic backgrounds.

The most engaging STEM outreach events are often those that are planned, integrated, and executed by strategic community partnerships. In order for industry, non-profit, and community partners to create these strategic partnerships with K-12 organizations, it is important to understand the mission of the partnering K-12 organization. Understanding the mission will assist with seeking K-12 organizations with minimum access to STEM opportunities by targeting underrepresented, underserved, and low-socioeconomic communities from specific racial and ethnic groups. Another strategic concept is to determine whether the partnering K-12 organization is STEM driven versus non-STEM driven. This is important because not all K-12 schools and youth community groups have the same access to STEM programming and outreach opportunities. 

These strategic partnerships are needed in order to build strong and supportive STEM networks that ultimately lead to showcasing how STEM skills translate to real world careers through experiments and demonstrations from industry, non-profit, and community partners that are STEM focused. The significance of this is to strategically display STEM careers that young girls from underrepresented, underserved K-12 organizations may have never heard of. By bridging industry partnerships to young girls from K-12 organizations, this can lead to on-site visits and handcrafted STEM experiments that give insight to a particular STEM field. Such hands-on activities have the capability to provide real world insight to a variety of STEM fields. The key is to intentionally connect real world experiences to real world careers so Black and Latina girls gain an understanding of STEM and how it connects to the real world around them. 

Not only is it necessary to create STEM outreach opportunities by showcasing how STEM skills translate to real careers for Black and Latina girls, it is also essential to link the STEM experience with a STEM professional from various racial and ethnic backgrounds. This creates representation for young Black and Latina girls to see individuals operating in STEM professions. Seeing this representation can further lead to empowerment for young Black and Latina girls to take an interest in STEM and possibly pursue STEM in higher education and the workforce. In addition, volunteer opportunities are provided for STEM professionals from various racial and ethnic backgrounds to share their STEM journey and experiences through hands-on experiments, mentoring programs, and career panels.

This solution will directly and meaningfully improve STEM engagement and exposure, empowerment, and self-awareness of K-12 Black and Latina girls from underserved communities in the Chicagoland and surrounding areas. By targeting this specific population of K-12 girls, the solution will ensure that girls from these target racial and ethnic communities are not limited to STEM engagement and participation due to low socioeconomic status and accessibility. To better understand their needs, seeking and creating strategic community partnerships with K-12 educators, specifically science teachers, and community leaders will assist with understanding the current needs and future goals. Alignment of partnership interests often means creating programming alongside K-12 and community leaders to fit their needs, set goals, and desired outcomes.

Throughout the development of the solution, engagement will occur in several ways. First, engagement will take place through STEM programming that features uniquely designed STEM experiments that relate to real world careers. These experiments will provide the background of a STEM discipline and a hands-on experiment/activity. These disciplines can be representative of but not limited to biology, chemistry, food science, engineering, computer science, physics, and much more. In addition, heightening the experience by including safety goggles, lab coats, hair nets, and gloves will add another layer of STEM engagement in regards to practicing safety in a laboratory setting. Second, engagement will occur by discussing career paths (industry, trade, or entrepreneurship) that coincide with the STEM program and experiment. This allows Black and Latina girls to know the possibilities that are available to them if they were inspired by the STEM experiment. Third, accessing volunteers that are STEM professionals from various racial and ethnic backgrounds who are also women adds another level of engagement. Although this is not a requirement to only have women volunteers, seeing a woman operating in a STEM profession may provide inspiration for Black and Latina girls to see someone that looks like them. Last, but not least, gathering feedback through a short survey will assist with measuring impact by understanding what the girls liked, disliked, and what they would like to see in the future. This information will help by knowing what partners to consider for future partnerships.

Overall, this solution addresses the needs of K-12 Black and Latina girls by increasing self-awareness and providing empowerment to pursue STEM. Self-awareness is the ability to accurately judge one’s own performance and behavior and to respond appropriately to different social situations. By engaging in positive self-affirmation, creative and innovative thinking, and self-perception activities, K-12 Black and Latina girls may become more confident learners, experimenters, and true believers in their own capabilities inside and outside the classroom. This helps create a safe space that ultimately brings every aspect of self-awareness all together. Overall, the empowerment to pursue STEM is vital and the driving force behind empowerment and self-awareness are both essential to reach K-12 Black and Latina girls and make a direct impact.

Our team is well positioned to deliver the solution to the specific target population because of our current footprint in Chicago and surrounding areas, access to K-12 educators and community partners, and previous accomplishments in contribution to the solution. We are the right people to design, deliver, and implement the solution to K-12 Black and Latina girls because 83% of our team members represent the Black community and have experienced lack of STEM activities afterschool, weekend, and summer programs growing up in cities or rural areas such as Chicago, IL, Augusta, GA, Memphis, TN, Milwaukee, WI, or Buckatunna, MS. In addition, 100% of our team members identify as women who are either currently working in a STEM profession, have worked in a STEM profession, or currently pursuing a STEM degree. Our team representation is beneficial in that it allows common ground for shared experiences with K-12 Black and Latina girls.

To better understand the needs of K-12 Black and Latina girls in Chicago, IL and surrounding areas, our team is addressing the solution by partnering with K-12 and community organizations on the South side, West side, and even suburban areas with limited access to STEM outreach activities. Majority of our partnerships cater to Black and Latina underserved communities. For example, we have established partnerships with inner city K-12 organizations such as Langston Hughes STEM Elementary School (a predominantly Black school), Lara Academy Pink Panthers (a predominantly Latina school with an all girls afterschool group), and Girls Inc. of Chicago to provide STEM exposure and engagement during and after school. We have also partnered with suburban schools for career STEM talks with limited representation and STEM access.

The design and implementation of our solution is meaningfully guided by our community partnerships and agendas because we currently leverage those ongoing community programs. Since 2019, we have partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago to deliver STEM programs for their Littles and Big, and we are STEAM ambassadors for the Museum of Science and Industry where we take part in museum-wide and special events. We are also positioned with corporate partners such as PepsiCo Research and Development and Vital Proteins to provide STEM career exposure opportunities for K-12 Black and Latina girls at their facilities with their employees. Some of our other community partnerships with Upward Bound and Englewood Village Market allows an opportunity for our solution to be addressed throughout the south side of Chicago. With this approach, so far our team has committed 45 hours to reaching 1,151 youth and parents through 21 STEM events (STEM programs, STEM outreach, and STEM talks). For the remainder of the year, we are scheduled to complete at least 17 events and counting.

As of this year, our solution has served 1,151 youth and parents through 21 STEM events (STEM programs, STEM outreach, STEM talks) with a commitment of 45 hours to our mission and 15 partnerships.

We are currently on track to exceed impact numbers from 2022.

We are applying to this challenge because we hope that Solve and Tiger Global Impact Ventures can help us overcome our barriers and challenges regarding building and office space capability, capacity building for full time and part time paid staff, increasing STEM program offerings that are relevant, and expanding our STEM network with companies and organizations to effectively utilize what is already available while also giving those companies and organizations access to racial and ethnic markets they may not have yet reached. Furthermore, participation in the 6 month support program will address some of our challenges such accessing a network of resources partners and assessing what resources and support are most appropriate to enhance our impact. Not only that, individual and group leadership coaching, developmental modules, and a peer-to-peer network will expand our team’s knowledge and growth.

Dr. Shy Brown is connected and heavily invested in the communities in which our project is based. Her footprint is well known within the areas we currently serve in Chicago and surrounding areas. Dr. Shy facilitates STEM programming during school and after school hours with our K-12 organizations and community partners. In fact, she is the only full time team member that has chosen to dedicate her passion and purpose to exposing STEM career opportunities to K-12 Black and Latina girls. Not only is she consistently building partnerships with K-12 organizations, community groups, and industry partners, she is also constantly networking through her involvement with the Chicago STEM Pathways Cooperative, a Chicago STEM ecosystem that is a community driven initiative that works to address inequities in the STEM learning continuum, and CSforCHI, which is an alliance that supports Chicago’s efforts to advance equity, awareness, and access to pathways for high quality computer science education for Chicago youth, educators, and families. Dr. Shy is also a member of the Chicago Learning Exchange (CLX), which is a backbone organization that connects and supports our city’s array of out-of-school time (OST) organizations in order to develop and coordinate strategies to better serve youth, youth workers, and our ecosystem in Chicago.

Our solution is innovative because it approaches the problem of STEM exposure for underrepresented and underserved communities in a new way by bridging real world products and applications to real world careers through hands-on STEM programs and activities. Basically, our approach meets our target audience where they currently are. Our STEM programs are handcrafted by our team which provides the background of a science discipline, a hands-on experiment/activity, and career paths discussion. Our STEM experiments represent science disciplines such as biology, chemistry, food science, and engineering. For example, our  “Building Self-Awareness Through STEM” curriculum shines light on issues that some Black and Latina girls may face regarding their appearance. This curriculum features four STEM experiments catered to skin and hair in which Black and Latina girls learn the biology and chemistry involved in skin and hair products while innovating their very own products (soap, sugar scrub, hair shampoo, hair conditioner, and lip balm) to take home. Our “Food Science” curriculum provides exposure to food through unique experimentation. This curriculum features four STEM experiments catered to making candy, slowing down oxidation, discovering DNA from fruit, and color changing chemistry for sports beverages. Some of our STEM programs take on a “STEM to STEAM” approach where the art aspect can be incorporated into the experiment/activity to give K-12 girls the opportunity to be creative and innovative using senses such as sight, touch, smell, and taste. In addition, we increase self-awareness and self-empowerment by providing positive self-affirmations through a signature Building Bridges, Inc. bracelet. These signature bracelets are shared at the end of each STEM program and they provide a direct and lasting impact.

Not only that, the pandemic led to another innovation from our team through development of STEM kits that includes safe, hypoallergenic ingredients and safety equipment portioned for specific experiment needs. These STEM kits can change the market by providing take home science kits that relate to real world careers with packaging featuring Black and Latina girls to increase representation in the toy and science industry.

Over the next year, we hope to have doubled our impact numbers from 2022 with additional partnerships and additional full time staff and team members.

Over the next 3-5 years, our goal is to have a multipurpose building space to host more youth for STEM activities and store materials, pivot our current STEM kits to be sold in stores, add more STEM programs to our curriculum,  and have at least 10 hired staff to perform daily tasks and duties of the business. As of now, this organization is operated merely on the basis of the committed efforts from our core team members. Because we are advocates for STEM education, another goal is to provide scholarships for high school graduating seniors choosing to pursue STEM majors. We understand that college education can be costly, and we believe in providing opportunities to gain access to scholarships. Lastly, we are striving to expand more broadly in Chicago, Nashville, and to other major cities to develop chapters. We’ve conducted in-person and virtual programs through partnerships with partnerships for students in Illinois, Washington, Mississippi, District of Columbia, and even Canada. Taking this into consideration, our hope is to expand in order to have in-person interaction in at least 5 other cities by establishing a national team.

We are measuring our progress to our impact goals through survey administration and monitoring online traffic (website, newsletter, and social media). Through our surveys, we have been able to report and share our impact at the conference level through poster presentations. We presented our outreach efforts at the Experimental Biology Scientific Outreach Activity Poster Session on April 2, 2022. Experimental Biology is the largest and most prestigious interdisciplinary meeting of five societies that explores the latest research in anatomy, biochemistry and molecular biology, investigative pathology, pharmacology, and physiology. Our poster titled “Building Self Awareness through STEM Virtual Summer Camp for Young Girls” was funded by Employees Committed to Helping Others (ECHO), an Employee Resource Group at PepsiCo, Inc.

We presented our community partnership efforts at the Discover BMB Poster Session on March  28, 2023. Discover BMB is the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology that brings together researchers in academia and industry, educators, trainees and students from across the globe. Our poster titled “Community Partnership Can Drive Continuous STEM Exposure for Female-Identifying and Non-Binary Youth” was a collaborative effort with the Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago).

Through addressing the problem with our solution, we expect that participation in our STEM programming for Black and Latina girls will yield two things 1) exposure to STEM careers and 2) empowerment to enjoy STEM. The short term goal is for Black and Latina girls to feel empowered to learn and pursue STEM in the classroom. The long-term goal is for Black and Latina girls to feel empowered to purse STEM beyond K-12 through undergraduate years to enter a STEM career.

A collection of technology applications power our solution. Examples include Zoom and YouTube for our EXPOSE Live Series platform, Survey Monkey (surveys), Canva (presentations and social fliers), Squarespace (website), QuickBooks (financial bookkeeping), FlashIssue (newsletters), and digital pay services (Paypal, Square, Venmo, Cashapp, Stripe).

1 full time (unpaid)

5 part time (unpaid)

Outsourced team of assistants (paid)

Building Bridges, Inc. was founded in 2018, and we've been working on the solution for 5 years.

Our approach to incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusivity to our organization is rooted in making sure all backgrounds are welcome to contribute. We are inclusive of race as our organization has been or is currently supported by team members who are Black, Indian, White, and Hispanic. We are inclusive to gender as our organization has been or is currently supported by team members who are women and men. 

Our organization promotes team building activities and team meetings in order to create a team that works together through forming bonds and connections. Because our team members are from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, we learn from each other's lived experiences and find commonality in some shared experiences which creates a better environment for understanding, support, and respect.

Building Bridges, Inc. is designed to empower young girls ages 8-18 by exposing them to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education and self-awareness strategies. Our key activity is STEM programming which features uniquely designed STEM experiments that relate to real world careers. Our STEM programs provide the background of a science discipline, a hands-on experiment/activity, and career paths discussion. Our current STEM experiments represent science disciplines such as biology, chemistry, food science, and engineering. The key resources needed to run our activities are people (full time and part time paid staff), access to building and office space, and financial capital to offer current STEM programs and create new STEM programs. 

The types of interventions to deliver our key activity is provided through workshops, STEM kits, and a Building Bridges, Inc. signature affirmation bracelet. Most of our STEM programs can be offered either in-person or virtually. For virtual programs, we utilize workshops offered via Zoom and our uniquely developed STEM kit that includes safe, hypoallergenic ingredients and safety equipment portioned for specific experiment needs. All STEM programs feature our signature Building Bridges, Inc. self-affirmation bracelet that provides lasting impact. Young girls ages 8-18 are the beneficiaries of our intervention. Although our mission highlights young girls, we also welcome young boys to participate. We don’t discriminate against gender nor race because we want all youth to experience what we have to offer. The customers of our intervention are industry partners. We’re able to reach our customers through our social media channels, website, monthly newsletters, referrals from other partnerships, and word of mouth. We measure our impact through surveys administered after each STEM program. The value proposition for our beneficiaries is exposure to STEM careers, STEM professionals, and empowerment to pursue STEM through our signature affirmation bracelets. The value proposition for our customers is access to our STEM programs for their respective beneficiaries, promotion of their brand, and partnership recognition.

The key partners and stakeholders needed to deliver our key activities are STEM industry partners, school districts, and local community youth groups. Our biggest expenditure areas are operating expenses (monthly/yearly programs and subscriptions), salaries, purchase of bulk materials and travel expenses associated with out of state requests. Surplus profits will be devoted to more community outreach initiatives such as back to school drives and installation of library trees in underserved neighborhoods. Our current revenue sources can be broken down into partner sponsorships 85% and donations 15%.

Our plan for becoming financially sustainable is a collective effort of consulting our services to community youth organizations, sustained grants and donations, and maintaining corporate partnerships to fund services for underserved communities.

Examples of how our plan has been sustainable so far include corporate funding and donations. We have been successful through our funding from PepsiCo Research and Development because of our partnership to 1)provide event support for their STEM focused programs, 2) monitor and analyze survey metrics, and 3) development of STEM curriculum for PepsiCo. Through this partnership and donations, we’ve been able to contribute to STEM outreach initiatives on a larger scale to reach hundreds of youth and parents at one time in the same setting.