Project Scientist Makes the Biggest Impact Yet With Five Colleges Hosting STEM Summer Academy
LAGUNA BEACH, CA, September 6, 2017 (Newswire.com) - Project Scientist, a non-profit dedicated to educating, coaching, and advocating for girls and women with an aptitude, talent, and passion for STEM, surpassed their expectations with the growth and success of their Summer Academy.
To date, Project Scientist has served 1,397 girls through their Summer Academy offered at Caltech, University of Southern California, Concordia University - Irvine, UNC Charlotte, and Johnson & Wales University Charlotte, at which campers completed 336 STEM experiments this summer alone. Participants also visited 35 STEM-related companies through Project Scientist Expeditions, which are held during Summer Academy and throughout the year when public schools are closed.
“We are so thrilled to have been able to educate, inspire, and support girls as young as age four in the fields of STEM,” said Project Scientist Founder Sandy Marshall. “The vision of Project Scientist is to transform the face of STEM by nurturing today’s future scientists who will lead the world in solving tomorrow's greatest challenges. We are doing that one girl at a time.”
Through the Summer Academy, Project Scientist hired and trained 18 credentialed teachers through their partnership with Sci-Girls, a PBS created and National Science Foundation funded curriculum. Spending the summer at Project Scientist allows teachers to see girls thriving in STEM subjects and hence breaking stereotypes that teachers often have around girls in math and science. These teachers will take their new STEM education knowledge and teaching skills back to the classroom this fall, serving thousands of students, making our impact exponential. In addition to teachers, Project Scientist also employed 22 college interns, providing college students with leadership skills and self-reflection around their experiences, dreams, and goals in STEM majors and careers.
Perhaps most importantly, Project Scientist hosted 71 “STEM Superstars,” female STEM professionals that talk to Project Scientist girls about their education, career, failures, fears and goals to motivate and encourage girls.
Project Scientist’s goals would not have been attainable were it not for generous funders. Grants, scholarships and supplies for Summer Academy and Expeditions were provided by K’NEX, Wells Fargo, Google Fiber, Bank of America, Duke Energy, Joseph Drown Foundation, Wasserman Foundation, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Southern California Edison, The Leon Levine Foundation, Reemprise Fund, Daimler Trucks North America, State Street Foundation, Crescent Communities, UTC Aerospace Systems, and Capital Group.
“A great program that has a visionary and dedicated leadership that expose young girls to amazing women role models in science. The projects and activities are great, but we send our daughter here so she can see that there are no limits to what she can be or accomplish if she enters a science related field,” said parent Ajay Perumbeti.
About Project Scientist
Founded/established in 2011, the mission of Project Scientist is to educate, coach, and advocate for girls and women with an aptitude, talent, and passion for STEM. Through engagement of top STEM companies, universities, teachers and hands-on curriculum, Project Scientist Summer Academy attendees discover opportunities available to them in STEM. The need for Project Scientist was based off research that shows girls with a high skill, aptitude, and talent for STEM subjects are not currently served or identified at a young age. Founder Sandy Marshall of Laguna Beach, California, created Project Scientist to change the world’s view of “who” a scientist is and “what” a scientist does. Project Scientist partners with Harvard University and the University of North Carolina Charlotte to research its educational model and to validate the impact that camp programs are having on those who attend.
Source: Project Scientist