I am so excited to be working as Program Director for STEM Advantage, an organization that I have known and respected since 2014, when I arrived at the California State University, Office of the Chancellor as Senior Project Manager for the STEM Collaboratives. Lee Ann Kline was introduced to me through a mutual friend and I was deeply impressed with her passion, her commitment to making a difference, and her vision for STEM Advantage.
At every event I sponsored for STEM Collaboratives, I made certain to include STEM Advantage…for I believed in the work that the organization was and is doing. Jump to May 2017, when a conversation arose about the future of STEM Advantage and its expansion efforts. I had completed my work as Senior Project Manager and was looking for a way to leverage the contacts, the experiences, and the collective impact model from that project to something that would extend beyond…and lo and behold, it was STEM Advantage.
Thus, on August 1, 2017, I became Program Director! These past few months have been amazing, for I have truly found an organization that at its heart provides opportunities for women and under-represented students enrolled in the CSU that are only found at the elite institutions of learning across the US. It is an honor and pleasure to be a part of such important work.
As 2017 closes, STEM Advantage can count some significant milestones reached: contacts at our four partner campuses (CSUDH, CSULA, CSUN, CSULB) increased four-fold, we saw a tripling of applications submitted over last year, and we have reached our milestone of supporting over 100 scholars! W e have created an Alumni Network and hosted our first event, we have seen 54% of our scholars obtain their first full-time jobs after graduation resultant from their internships, AND our scholars are earning $7,000 to $27,000 above the national averages for starting salaries.
In its five years, STEM Advantage has grown and now partners with CSU Dominguez Hills (our first partner), CSU Los Angeles, CSU Northridge, and our newest partner, CSU Long Beach! We envision our expansion to include all 23 campuses in the Cal State System by 2023…but we need your help!
There are several ways you can assist in our growth to serve MORE women and under-represented students in STEM:
- You can donate to support our scholarships- it takes $5,000 to support one scholar for one year.
- You can donate to support our expansion- we need more staffing to support the efforts of our Program Director and shift from an all-volunteer organization to a state-wide working non-profit.
- You can provide employees serving as mentors to our scholars. Our scholars state that the critical pieces of our 360-degree program are the internship, the mentor, and the scholarship- mentors aid in supporting the professional and personal growth of our scholars.
- You can provide full-time, paid, summer internships to our scholars. As we have seen, many of our scholars have been hired by the organizations that have provided them with summer internships, including scholars at Sony Pictures Entertainment, Farmers Insurance, and others. With our increase in scholars comes an increase in the number of internships we must facilitate…your assistance brings to you qualified, pre-trained employees!
As 2017 closes, STEM Advantage recognizes its contribution to develop the workforce that California and the nation need. To support STEM Advantage, visit our website at www.stemadvantage.org and donate OR text STEM to 91999.
I look forward to my future with STEM Advantage! Each week, I will blog about our work, our scholars, our growth and expansion and the role that STEM Advantage plays in providing the best, the brightest, and the most diverse workforce to our communities.
Until next week….Dawn