Culturally Relevant STEAM

STEM occupations are expected to experience rapid growth within the next decade. The roles within STEM fields have changed, and more well-rounded professionals are needed with technical skills and arts; hence, there is opportunity for growth across all occupations in STEAM. Implementing a new curriculum that incorporates communication and collaboration will help professionals of all types succeed in the age of AI and technology.

Although the projections show employment for several professions within STEAM will continue to grow rapidly, there is a gender gap that persists in the STEAM workforce. There is a need for more girls and women pursuing STEAM 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 culturally relevant STEAM programs for K-12 Black and Brown girls, race and ethnic representation in STEAM professions, and empowerment to pursue such fields with confidence.

Access to STEAM outreach activities have the potential to provide exposure. According to the Afterschool Alliance national survey, 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 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. 

The representation of race and ethnicity in STEAM matters.  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 STEAM. Observing a STEAM professional that has something in common, such as race and ethnic background, and lived experience 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, suggesting that there is a need for more representation of race and ethnicity.

Empowerment for Black and Brown girls is critical for pursuing STEAM.  While having access to STEAM programs is the first step, the aim of these programs should be targeted to increase girls’ STEM confidence and social-emotional learning (SEL) skills.  Confidence is a belief of self-assurance from one’s own abilities, and this belief is vital to every girls’ success when it comes to pursuing STEAM. A polling study has shown that girls experience a 30% decrease in confidence between ages 8-14, and research also shows that stereotype threat increases the social pressure applied to girls in STEAM spaces. That’s why it is important to develop culturally relevant STEAM programs that will help Black and Brown girls become confident learners and true believers in their own capabilities.

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

The most engaging STEAM programs and outreach activities are often those that are planned, integrated, and executed by strategic 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 STEAM 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 STEAM driven versus non-STEAM driven. This is important because not all K-12 schools and youth community groups have the same access to STEAM programming and outreach opportunities.

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

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

This solution will directly and meaningfully improve STEAM exposure, engagement, and empowerment for K-12 Black and Brown girls from underserved communities in the Chicagoland and surrounding areas. In particular, our reach encompasses schools on the South and West sides of Chicago with low income statistics ranging from 90% - 98% and demographics of Black students at 98% and Hispanic students at 93%. By targeting this specific population of K-12 girls, the solution will ensure that girls from these target racial and low income 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 and community leaders will assist with understanding the current needs and future goals. 

Throughout the development of the solution, exposure, engagement, and empowerment will take place. First, exposure will occur through STEAM programming that features uniquely designed STEAM hands-on experiments that relate to real world careers, exemplify cultural relevance, and incorporates a STEAM discipline. These disciplines can be representative of but not limited to biology, chemistry, food science, engineering, computer science, robotics, and much more. In addition, heightening the experience by including safety goggles, lab coats, hair nets, and gloves will add another layer of STEAM exposure in regards to practicing safety in a laboratory setting. 

Second, engagement will occur by discussing career paths (industry, trade, entrepreneurship) that coincide with the STEAM experiment. This allows Black and Brown girls to know the possibilities that are available to them if the STEAM experiment peaked their interest and curiosity. Access to STEAM professionals from various racial and ethnic backgrounds who are also women adds another level of exposure. Although this is not a requirement to only have women volunteers, seeing a woman operating in a STEAM profession may provide inspiration for Black and Brown girls to see someone that looks like them. 

Third, this feeds into empowerment which will occur by increasing STEAM confidence and SEL skills for Black and Brown girls. This solution addresses the needs of K-12 Black and Brown 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 Brown girls may become more confident learners, experimenters, and true believers in their own capabilities inside and outside the classroom. Building Bridges, Inc. addresses self-empowerment by providing positive self-affirmations through a signature Building Bridges, Inc. bracelet. These signature bracelets are shared at the end of each STEAM program and they provide a direct and lasting impact. Overall, the empowerment to pursue STEAM is vital and the driving force behind empowerment and self-awareness are both essential to reach Black and Brown 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, established industry and community partnerships, and previous accomplishments in contribution to the solution. We are the right team to design, deliver, and implement the solution to K-12 Black and Brown girls because 67% of our team members represent the Black and Brown community and have experienced lack of STEAM programs growing up in cities or rural areas. In addition, 100% of our team members identify as women who are either currently working in a STEAM profession, have worked in a STEAM 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 Brown girls. In addition, the way our team designs STEAM programs resonates with the backgrounds of Black and Brown girls in order to meet them where they are.

To better understand the needs of K-12 Black and Brown 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 STEAM programming. Majority of our partnerships cater to Black and Brown underserved and low income communities. For example, we have established partnerships with K-12 organizations such as Langston Hughes STEM Elementary School (93% Black, 6% Hispanic, 98% low income), Lara Augustin Academy (6% Black, 93% Hispanic, 95% low income), Rickover Junior High School (78% Black, 15% Hispanic, 51% low income) Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago, Girls Inc. of Chicago, and Homewood Science Center to provide STEM programming during and after school as well as for special events.

The design and implementation of our solution is meaningfully guided by our strategic partnerships because we currently leverage those ongoing industry and community partners. Since 2019, we have partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago to deliver STEAM 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 to provide STEAM career exposure opportunities for K-12 Black and Brown girls which incorporates industry field trips and access to their employees. Other partnerships such as with TRIO Upward Bound allows our solution to be addressed throughout the south side of Chicago with high school students. With this approach, our 2023 Annual Report proved that our team committed 155 hours to reaching 1952 youth through 68 STEAM events (STEAM programs, STEAM career talks, and STEAM outreach).

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. This equips them with the proper knowledge and self-confidence to pursue what they are passionate about in the world of STEM and beyond. We believe that it is important to fill in the gaps by “building bridges” that will empower young girls to embrace creative thinking and endless possibilities. We accomplish our mission through STEAM programming which features uniquely designed STEAM experiments that relate to real world careers. Our STEAM programs are hand-crafted by our team which provides the background of a science discipline, a hands-on experiment/activity, and career paths discussion. Our STEAM experiments represent science disciplines such as biology, chemistry, food science, and engineering. Although our vision highlights young Black 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. We pursue our vision by providing positive self- affirmations through a signature Building Bridges, Inc. bracelet that provides lasting impact. Since 2018, we have developed 12 STEAM programs ranging from areas of biology, chemistry, engineering, technology, and food science. In addition, we have executed over 200 STEAM programs and STEAM outreach events (STEAM programs, STEAM outreach, career panels, STEAM talks), reached over 5000 youth, partnered with 31 organizations (community, corporate, schools) and acquired over 150 volunteers.

We solidified new partnerships with minority-serving (Black and Hispanic)
girl organizations. Our new partnerships with Girls Inc. of Chicago and Lara
Academy Pink Panthers have broadened our reach with low-income communities with minimum access to STEM hands-on experiments and exposure to STEAM career opportunities. Through Girls Inc. of Chicago, we've
been able to execute our STEAM programs and spread positive self-affirmations at school functions and corporate office field trips. With Lara Academy Pink Panthers, our monthly after-school interactions have fostered building relationships with the girls and their adult staff through our hands-on STEAM activities, positive self-affirmations, and corporate volunteers.

Building Bridges, Inc. partnered with Chicago State University Upward Bound (CSU) and Harper College (HC) InZone to deliver two STEAM-based summer camps where students were exposed to experiments and concepts relating to biology, chemistry, food science, and circuit engineering. STEAM camps with CSU Upward Bound occurred in July 2023 with high school students on the campus of CSU. Eighteen students in grades 9th and 10th met twice a week (six days total) for 1 hour sessions. STEAM camps at HC Inzone occurred in August 2023 with predominantly middle school students on the campus of HC. Fifteen students in grades 4th-9th met for one week (five days total) for 3-hour sessions.

We crossed a huge milestone for Building Bridges, Inc. as we welcomed summer interns in 2023. This was made possible through our partnership with the University of Chicago and the Odyssey Career Program. Building Bridges, Inc. has joined a global community of employer partners to receive customized recruiting support and benefit from UChicago undergraduate talent. The internship scholars we select are part of the Jeff Metcalf Internship Program. We welcomed aboard two Hispanic rising juniors. These phenomenal young ladies decided to continue their internships with Building
Bridges, Inc. throughout the Fall and Winter quarters. 

Over 80 girls from youth organizations across the South side of Chicago participated in STEAM challenges to build their STEAM efficacy and grow their STEAM confidence. For our STEAM challenge, girls were immersed in a cosmetic chemistry lab where they were able to create and design products such as sugar scrubs, hair conditioners, and lip glosses. Girls even learned the chemical properties and purpose of ingredients with an interactive ingredient detective game. At the end of the day, girls experienced a self-affirmation immersive space which allowed them to reflect on their confidence by crafting vision boards, designing affirmation mirrors, and expressing themselves with photos and props. This partnership was made possible with the Museum of Science and Industry, Building Bridges, Inc., PepsiCo, NeuroMaker, Code Your Dreams, and Current. 

Overall, our accomplishments in reaching Black and Brown girls have been made possible through our strategic partnerships. These strategic partnerships encompasses industry, non-profit, K-12 organizations, higher education institutions, and community partners. Our organization highly values the importance of building and bridging connections to better serve our target audience through what we have to offer.

We are applying to challenge because we hope Solve can help us overcome our barriers and challenges regarding increasing culturally relevant STEAM program offerings, expanding our network to include additional academic and community partners, capacity building for full time and part time paid staff, building and lab space capability for Black and Brown girls to participate in hands-on experiments, 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 9 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, the inclusive coaching sessions, workshops, and a peer-to-peer network will expand our team’s knowledge and growth. 

Our solution is innovative because it approaches the problem of STEAM exposure for underrepresented and underserved communities in a new way by bridging real world products and applications to real world careers through hands-on STEAM programs. Basically, our approach meets our target audience where they currently are. In addition, our STEAM programming promotes standard science concepts that are presented in a culturally comfortable manner that makes it easier for Black and Brown girls to make a connection, especially if the STEAM professional looks like them. Our STEAM programs are handcrafted by our team which provides the background of a science discipline, a hands-on experiment/activity, and career paths discussion. Our STEAM 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 Brown girls may face regarding their appearance. This curriculum features four STEAM experiments catered to skin and hair in which Black and Brown 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 gloss) to take home. This curriculum was intentionally designed to connect with minority girls and their interests, lack of exposure, self-perception, and personal care products. Also, when considering cosmetics and personal care products, Black women spent over $7.4 billion in 2022; however, only 2.5% of the market are Black beauty brands. This curriculum not only gives the opportunity for Black and Brown to be innovative and creative with making their own personal products, but they also learn the STEAM career paths, including entrepreneurship, related to the curriculum. As far as we know, this curriculum is the first of its kind in Chicago, and we hope to change the trajectory through exposure, engagement, and empowerment for Black and Brown girls to pursue more STEAM related career paths related to our creatively-designed curriculum. 

In addition, we increase self-awareness and self-empowerment by providing positive self-affirmations through our signature Building Bridges, Inc. bracelets. These bracelets come in variety of colors with different affirmations such as "My Future is Bright and Powerful" and "I Am Brilliant, Dazzling, and Fearless". These signature bracelets are shared at the end of each STEAM program and they provide a direct and lasting impact. Overall, the empowerment to pursue STEAM is vital and the driving force behind empowerment and self-awareness are both essential to reach Black and Brown girls and make a direct impact.

Through addressing the problem with our solution, we expect that participation in our STEAM programming for Black and Brown girls will yield three things 1) exposure to STEAM fields and career opportunities, 2) engagement with STEAM professionals to learn about their career paths and challenges faced as minority pursuing a STEAM field and 3) empowerment to enjoy and pursue STEAM with confidence. The short term goal is for Black and Brown girls to feel empowered to learn and pursue STEAM with curiosity in the classroom. The long-term goal is for Black and Brown girls to feel empowered to purse STEAM beyond K-12 through undergraduate years and ultimately enter a STEAM career.

Our team has spent time designing and collecting survey data over the last 4 years to gain insight about girls seeing themselves pursuing a STEAM career, if girls ever thought about a STEAM career, and whether or not they feel confident about themselves. Since 2022, our team has put in the effort to broaden our reach through conference presentations to showcase our data and impact evaluations, survey findings, and learnings.

Our first outreach efforts were presented 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” addressed the need for a 3-day virtual summer STEM camp to expose Black girls ages 8-14 to a science curriculum featuring the chemistry of soap, biology of skin, and anatomy of hair. Survey responses declared that each activity was highly rated as excellent or good. All kit materials were funded by Employees Committed to Helping Others (ECHO), an Employee Resource Group at PepsiCo, Inc.

Our science outreach presentation efforts continued in 2022 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. We presented the poster titled “Community Partnership Can Drive Continuous STEM Exposure for Female-Identifying and Non-Binary Youth”. The poster emphasized that collaborative community partnerships can drive STEM exposure through a conference-style event to engage middle school-aged youth in interactive, hands-on activities with STEM professionals. This was a collaborative effort and all materials were funded by the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago.

This year we presented our summer STEM camp outreach efforts at the Discover BMB Poster Session on March 25, 2024. Our poster titled “Summer STEM Camps Can Drive Exposure and Positively Impact Middle and High School Students’ Interest and Confidence in STEM Careers” was a collaborative effort with collegiate institutions, Chicago State University and Harper College., and it showcased how non-profit and academic partnerships are instrumental in providing hands-on experiences and fostering skills crucial for success in STEM fields.

We are measuring our progress to our impact goals through survey data analysis 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 previously mentioned in the aforementioned question about expecting the solution to have an impact on the problem: “Building Self Awareness through STEM Virtual Summer Camp for Young Girls”, Community Partnership Can Drive Continuous STEM Exposure for Female-Identifying and Non-Binary Youth, Summer STEM Camps Can Drive Exposure and Positively Impact Middle and High School Students’ Interest and Confidence in STEM Careers. We've seen our solution at work in various environments, and we believe in the impact that has already been proven with our target audience. These impact goals include but are not limited to serving youth and parents (63% increase compared to 2022), committing hours to our mission (45% increase compared to 2022), execution of events to reach our target audience (51% increase compared to 2022), and formulating strategic partnerships (55% increase compared to 2022). These percentage comparisons between years 2022 and 2023 are a true testament of how a female minority-focused STEAM program creates change to strive towards the inclusion and equity that STEAM fields need to truly innovate and flourish. Most importantly, the lack of funding, building space, people capacity, and resources has not hindered our organization from achieving its goals to impact our target audience. In fact, our team is confident in the organization's ability to deliver quality, driven results with increased funding, mentoring, and networking support.

A collection of technology applications power our solution such as AI, robotics, software platforms, and apps. We are trusted partners with NeuroMaker, a company that addresses real-world challenges using innovative perspectives of brain-computer interface, neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and coding. Their mission is to inspire students to embark on an exciting journey of project-based learning experiences based on real-world problems and industry technology in the realms of AI and BCI (brain-computer interface). With our scalable hardware, cutting-edge curriculum, and engaging challenges, we have joined forces with NeuroMaker to empower students to create real-world applications that bridge the gap between the human brain and computers while introduce them to the foundations of neuroscience, biomedical engineering, artificial intelligence, coding, and engineering design, all while building interpersonal skills, self-awareness, and self-efficacy. Our strategic partnership with NeuroMaker allows us to incorporate their technology with our target audience and our K-12 academic partners. Our partnership with NeuroMaker also expands to our ongoing partnership with PepsiCo R&D which aims to create a robust pipeline for diverse students to gain access to the STEM fields. By leveraging the diverse talents within Pepsi's internal R&D team, we are able to provide authentic mentorship and exposure to students from various backgrounds. Our goal is to break down barriers and foster an inclusive environment for STEM education.

We also utilize YouTube for our EXPOSE Live Series platform. Our core values are EXPOSE, EQUIP, and EMPOWER. In order to provide continuous exposure for youth, we created a platform that provides continuous exposure from various STEM professionals called the “EXPOSE Live Series” YouTube channel. This platform provides 1) exposure for youth to learn about various STEM careers from diverse STEM professionals and 2) exposure for BIPOC men and women to showcase their significant contributions in STEM. Each month we feature a BIPOC man/woman STEM professional to share their experience growing up and how they use their STEM degrees.

A new technology approach we are seeking to engage with is Dreami for matching and group mentoring services.  Dreami has two major capabilities that will successfully help with the execution of group mentoring sessions through smart matching and group sessions. Dreami has a 94% satisfaction matching rate which is designed to enhance a personalized program experience. The idea is for Black and Brown girls to provide their input during the smart matching phase by answering questions about themselves (likes, dislikes, interests). Our STEAM professional volunteers will also answer similar questions about themselves so that the right STEAM professional can be matched with the right group of girls for group mentoring sessions. In addition, Dreami will provide direction on group mentoring activities and questions to ensure an engaging and enriching educational and mentorship experience.

Founder/President (Full-time paid)

Vice-President, Treasurer (Part-time paid)

Social Media Manager/Graphic Designer (Part-time paid)

Executive Assistant Interns (2x) (Part-time paid)

Advisory Council (4x) (Part-time, un-paid)

Current Total Staff: 10

Incoming summer interns (4x) (Full-time paid-Staring June)

Building Bridges, Inc. was founded in 2018, and we've been working on the solution for 6 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 is currently supported by team members who are Black, Indian, White, Hispanic, and Filipino. 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 STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) education and self-awareness strategies. Our key activity is STEAM programming which features uniquely designed STEAM experiments that relate to real world careers. Our STEAM programs provide the background of a science discipline, a hands-on experiment/activity, and career paths discussion. Our current STEAM 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 STEAM programs and create new STEAM programs.  With additional funding we can bring many more programs to our target audience we currently service and expand to others that want our services.

The types of interventions to deliver our key activity is provided through workshops, STEAM programs/kits, and a Building Bridges, Inc. signature affirmation bracelet. Most of our STEAM programs can be offered either in-person or virtually. For virtual programs, we utilize workshops offered via Zoom and our uniquely developed STEAM kit that includes safe, hypoallergenic ingredients and safety equipment portioned for specific experiment needs. All STEAM 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 STEAM program. The value proposition for our beneficiaries is exposure to STEAM careers, STEAM professionals, and empowerment to pursue STEAM 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 STEAM 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 STEAM focused programs, 2) monitor and analyze survey metrics, and 3) development of STEAM curriculum for PepsiCo. Through this partnership and donations, we’ve been able to contribute to STEAM outreach initiatives on a larger scale to reach hundreds of youth and parents at one time in the same setting.  When we are in need without sponsorship we reach out to our donor base.  With additional funding we can reach so many more organizations and spread the STEAM initiative further creating the inquisition into STEAM in the groups we serve.