STEMACA (STEM Academy for All) is an non-profit organization that works to close the gender gap in STEM, especially in underserved communities. Our mission is to create opportunities for girls and all students in underserved communities so they get interested in STEM fields which will encourage them to pursue STEM careers.
Our Mission
Our mission is to create opportunities for girls in underserved communities to explore STEM subjects through a simple, progressively advanced curriculum, and encourage them to pursue rewarding careers in science, math, engineering and technology.
We help these students overcome the obstacles they would normally face to educational resources in these fields by providing them with an easily accessible curriculum and learning tools.
Our Story
Every organization has a beginning. When members of our team participated in robotics and technology competitions as students, there was a huge gender imbalance, with boys far outnumbering the girls. This motivated them to research the cause of the imbalance.
We discovered that most girls are not introduced to technical fields at a young age, as boys are, and that technical classes filled mostly with boys make girls feel they don’t belong. So, we decided to create an organization that would make the exciting field of technology available to girls, and to inform them about the many career opportunities available in STEM fields.
The Role of Educational Resources
The lack of STEM educational resources prevents students from under served communities to explore technical careers. Our goal is to break these obstacles for students through a variety of learning tools and curriculum.
We have made a curriculum that starts simple and progressively teaches harder topics. We emphasize on breaking problems into smaller steps, converting them to a visual representation using flowcharts. This greatly helps in understanding complex problems and solutions. We make STEM interesting and not intimidating!
Our Impact
We initially started with our workshops and STEM educational materials in the greater Seattle area. We were excited to see the enthusiasm and positive influence on young minds. This motivated us to take our efforts to different schools and organizations in various cities across multiple countries and to bring STEM opportunities not only girls, but all students in underserved areas.