Dreami STEM career mentorship

Summary:

Dreami is tackling a major problem: mentorship is proven to have an enormous impact on STEM participation and graduation rates for girls and women, but 63% of girls and women do not have mentors.  

What makes mentorship so inaccessible is how logistically intensive it is: there simply isn’t the bandwidth or internal resources for schools and universities to launch, manage and scale relevant mentorship programs. Moreover, running mentorship programs is incredibly manual: organizations often stitch together Frankenstein programs with overwhelming spreadsheets, painstaking surveys and countless emails with no scalability in sight. 

Additional Detail:

The impact of COVID-19 on education and workforce development is dire, with dropout rates increasing, unfinished learning and gaps in career development opportunities.

Dreami is dedicated to addressing the significant gender gap and challenges that women and girls face in completing their STEM education and accessing mentorship opportunities. This gap poses a major hurdle for women and girls in pursuing and thriving in STEM fields, impacting their career prospects and limiting their contribution to innovation and scientific advancements.

Statistics highlight the extent of the issue: 

Research by Journal of Research on Adolescence has shown that girls have limited access to mentors in STEM during high school, which plays a crucial role in providing guidance and support for pursuing STEM education and careers. 

Research by the Harvard Business Review has consistently shown the value of mentorship in improving graduation rates and promotion rates (up to 5x improvements). The Journal of Research in Science Teaching found that students who participated in mentoring programs were more likely to persist and graduate in STEM fields compared to their peers who did not have mentors.

According to AAUW, women who had mentors during their undergraduate education were more likely to graduate with a STEM degree than those without mentors. Additionally, women who had mentors were more likely to be promoted and advance in their careers compared to those without mentors.

The gender equity divide in STEM is further influenced by race, with intersectionality playing a significant role in shaping the experiences and opportunities available to women of different racial backgrounds. 

Statistics highlight the disparities faced by women of different races in STEM fields:

Black women face a significant gender and racial gap in STEM. According to the National Science Foundation, black women represent only 2.9% of the STEM workforce in the United States. Latinx Women: Latinx women also face challenges in accessing opportunities in STEM. Data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics shows that Latinx women make up only 2.8% of the STEM workforce. Indigenous women also experience significant disparities in STEM fields. According to the National Science Foundation, Indigenous women represent only 0.2% of the STEM workforce.

With all of this research proving the enormous value of mentorship on STEM representation and education, it is clear that a scalable, relevant and personalized mentorship technology solution is a key to bridging the gender equity divide that exists today. 

Detail:

Dreami's solution tackles the manual and administrative challenges of powering mentorship experiences, aiming to unlock access to mentorship for more women and girls in STEM. 

By automating and streamlining the onboarding, matching, scheduling, and tracking processes, Dreami's simple and elegant software platform revolutionizes the way mentorship programs are designed, implemented and managed.

The core hypothesis of Dreami is that by removing the logistical burdens associated with mentorship, more girls and women can benefit from relevant and personalized mentorship opportunities. Through automation, Dreami simplifies the entire mentorship journey, making it more accessible and scalable.

Dreami's platform offers a seamless user experience for both mentees and program administrators. Mentees can easily sign up and go through a training process that equips them with the necessary skills and knowledge to make the most of their mentorship experience. They can then fill out a curated matching quiz, which utilizes algorithms and data analysis to identify the best possible mentor match based on shared interests, expertise, and goals. This personalized matching process ensures that each mentee is connected with a mentor who can provide relevant guidance and support.

Once the match is made, Dreami's platform facilitates easy scheduling of mentorship sessions. Mentees can directly schedule sessions with their mentors, eliminating the need for back-and-forth communication and reducing scheduling conflicts. The platform also provides accountability resources such as guides and agenda templates, empowering mentees with tools to structure their mentoring sessions effectively.

For program administrators, Dreami's platform offers valuable insights and data. The daily dashboard provides key metrics, including engagement ratings, match ratings, and goal completion rates. This data-driven approach allows program administrators to track the effectiveness of their mentorship programs, identify areas of improvement, and make data-informed decisions to enhance the overall experience for mentees.

Dreami's superpower lies in its ability to customize and personalize mentorship programs according to the objectives and participants of each program. Recognizing that different programs have unique needs and goals, Dreami adapts its platform to meet those requirements. This flexibility ensures that mentorship experiences are tailored to the specific context and desired outcomes of the program, enhancing the effectiveness and impact of mentorship relationships.

By automating and streamlining the administrative aspects of mentorship, Dreami empowers mentees to easily access mentorship opportunities and facilitates the efficient management of mentorship programs. With its personalized approach, user-friendly interface, and data-driven insights, Dreami transforms the STEM education landscape, making it more inclusive, scalable, and impactful.

Dreami is dedicated to meaningfully improving the lives of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) girls and women between the ages of 16-30 pursuing an education in STEM in the US. Many of these girls and women are first-generation graduates. We recognize the unique challenges and barriers faced by this specific population and aim to provide them with equitable access to mentorship opportunities.

To understand the needs of our target population, Dreami directly partners with over 50 STEM-focused non-profit organizations, university departments focused on STEM degrees, and schools. 

Some existing partners include: Harvard University, Georgia State University, Techbridge Girls (one of the judges of the SOLVE challenge!), First Graduate, Latinas in Tech, Blacks in Technology, Black Women in AI just to name a few.

We collaborate closely with these stakeholders to gain insights into the experiences, aspirations, and challenges faced by BIPOC girls and women in STEM. 

Through over 250 focus groups, surveys, and one-on-one interviews, we have collected valuable feedback and perspectives to inform the development of our solution. We also collect over 50 different data points per mentee across their journey with Dreami, leading to a deeper understanding of their experience over time and eventually, longitudinal outcomes. 

We are collecting data such as: confidence ratings, strength of social capital scores, clarity scores on goals, goal completion ratings, match satisfaction scores, anecdotal feedback and # of touch-points each mentee has with a mentor.

By working directly with our target population and engaging them throughout the solution development process, we ensure that their voices and needs are at the forefront. We seek to understand their unique experiences, including the barriers they encounter in accessing mentorship, the specific support they require, and their goals and aspirations in the STEM field. This ongoing dialogue allows us to tailor our platform and mentorship programs to meet their specific needs and aspirations.

Dreami's solution addresses the needs of BIPOC girls and women in several ways. Firstly, by automating and streamlining the mentorship process, we are removing barriers to social capital that often hinder access to mentorship opportunities. 

Secondly, our personalized approach ensures that the mentorship experiences are tailored to the specific needs and aspirations of BIPOC girls and women in STEM. By using customized matching algorithms, we match mentees with relevant mentors who share similar interests, expertise, and backgrounds, creating meaningful and impactful connections. This personalized matching fosters a sense of belonging and cultural understanding, enhancing the mentorship experience for our target population.

Lastly, Dreami's collaboration with STEM-focused non-profit organizations, university departments, and schools allows us to provide resources and support specifically tailored to the needs of BIPOC girls and women. We offer curated guides, agenda templates, and other relevant resources that address the unique challenges they may face in the STEM field. By targeting this specific population, we aim to empower them with the necessary skills, knowledge, and support to pursue and thrive in STEM careers.

As a team entirely of BIPOC engineers who have worked together for the last 2 years, our team’s ability to build quickly, prior entrepreneurial experience, deep empathy for our users, extensive network in Education and Nonprofits, resilience, and coachability will guarantee Dreami’s success. 

Ashima (the team lead) is a first-generation South-Asian American who was inspired to build Dreami after her difficulty in finding relevant mentors during the first few years of her Chemical Engineering career. In fact, Ashima left her STEM career due to the harsh nature of the industry, and was determined to build a solution that would have helped her during those difficult times. “Ashima” means “limitless” in Sanskrit, which defines Dreami’s core mission: "together, we are limitless"

Jasmine (our tech lead), identifies as a Black woman and is the first in her family to become an engineer. As a second-time founder with a unique skill set in software engineering, UX design, and research, Jasmine is committed to creating products that deliver meaningful outcomes for users. Being a technical founder, she has a deep understanding of user experience design and research methods, which helps her create intuitive interfaces that are both engaging and effective for Dreami’s 5k users. With her innovation, expertise, and leadership skills, she is committed to leaving a lasting impact through her work and inspiring others to do the same.

Our team wakes up every day to build for those girls and women, who didn't have that role model who looks like them, to show them who they could become. 

At Dreami, we prioritize understanding the needs of the communities we serve and actively engage them throughout the development of our solution. We believe that their input, ideas, and agendas are essential in creating a solution that is meaningful and impactful. Here's how we ensure community involvement in the design and implementation of our solution:

1. Relevant Community Partnerships: We establish partnerships with STEM-focused non-profit organizations, university departments, and schools that serve the target population. These partnerships allow us to directly engage with the community and gain insights into their needs, challenges, and aspirations. Our customers have also done a lot of research themselves to understand the unique challenges in the ecosystem.

2. Mentee Interviews and Surveys: We conduct interviews, focus groups, and surveys with our mentee base. These interactions provide us with firsthand perspectives, allowing us to understand their experiences, barriers, and desired outcomes regarding mentorship and STEM education.

3. Founder-led Sales and Support: Throughout the development process, we actively seek feedback from the community by conducting all Sales and Customer Support. This allows us to truly understand where we are winning, and where we are falling short and need to improve.

Dreami is currently serving 50 paying organizations, representing 5,100 mentors and mentees on our platform. This is over a 100% growth Year over Year! We forecast this to grow to 100 paying organizations by H1 of 2024, and 15,000 mentors and mentees by May 2024.

Some existing partners include: Harvard University, Georgia State University, Techbridge Girls (one of the judges of the SOLVE challenge!), First Graduate, Latinas in Tech, Blacks in Technology, Black Women in AI just to name a few.

With these partners, we've achieved: 92% match satisfaction ratings, 92% goal completion ratings and 94% program satisfaction ratings.

We are particularly excited about the learning modules and the peer-to-peer network . These modules hold immense value for Dreami as we seek to maximize our impact and ensure long-term sustainability. Even though we have proven demand, generated recurring revenue and have seen great impact, we need all the support and guidance we can get to expand Dreami to millions of girls and women. 

To share a little more insight into our needs:

-Refining Our Business Model: The learning modules will provide us with valuable insights and frameworks to evaluate and refine our business model as we expand Dreami's impact. By leveraging the expertise of resource partners and our peer founders, we plan to fine-tune our business model to achieve optimal efficiency and impact.

-Strengthening Our Theory of Change: The theory of change is the foundation of our solution. We're looking to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying assumptions, outcomes, and pathways to success, allowing us to create a more robust and evidence-based approach as we work to solve more complex needs of mentorship.

- Planning for Scaling: One of our primary goals is to scale our mentorship solution to reach more communities, and eventually expand globally. The learning modules will equip us with the tools and frameworks necessary to develop a sustainable and comprehensive scaling strategy. 

-The peer network will play a vital role in supporting us. By connecting with other innovators and practitioners in the field, we will have a valuable platform for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and mutual support. Engaging with like-minded founders who share our passion for gender equity in STEM will provide us with  innovative ideas and potential partnerships.  This network will not only enhance our understanding of the gender equity landscape but also provide a support system as we navigate the complexities of scaling our solution. 

As we so strongly believe at Dreami: together we are limitless. We are excited to share all of our lessons learned, leadership mishaps and opportunities, scaling plans, educational models, technology improvements with our peers in this challenge, and we're so glad to be considered! 

My name, Ashima, means “limitless” in Sanskrit. After surviving the devastating South Asian tsunami in 2004, I've made it a point to become as limitless as I can with the limited time we are all granted. From working as an engineer in the California oil fields to pivoting to Tech with no guidance to climbing 14,000 ft+ mountains, I strive for growth through uncomfortable situations. 

However, I've realized that I can't be limitless without the guidance of mentors. After attempting to seek out mentors to no avail, I recognized how difficult it is for under-represented individuals to get the career guidance they deserve. 

I started Dreami during one of the most unprecedented times in our lifetime as COVID-19 and racial injustice pummeled the globe. On a backpacking trip, the idea struck me: disrupt the status quo of mentorship and make career guidance equitable and scalable. 

As a first-generation South-Asian American, I was inspired to build Dreami after my difficulty in finding relevant mentors during the first few years of my Chemical Engineering career. In fact, I actually left my STEM career due to the harsh nature of the industry, and was determined to build a solution that would have helped me during those difficult times.

There is an indescribable amount of passion and empathy being funneled into Dreami. The long nights, anxiety and uncertainty have all been worth it for us to hear how life-changing our solution has been.