THE FOUNDERS

Archika Dogra

​Archika Dogra attends Interlake High School as a senior in Bellevue, WA. Archika is the President of her school's Technology Student Association, is part of National Science Honor Society, and does Speech and Debate. In her free time, she enjoys computer science, softball, and biomedical research!

Evelyn Chen

Evelyn is a senior at Newport High School. She participates in speech and debate and theatre at school. In her free time, she enjoys reading and watching football. Evelyn is super excited to expand and evolved EduSTEM to better achieve it's mission!

Maya Srikanth

Maya Srikanth is a senior at Newport High School. At Newport, she loves to participate in its Robotics club and is a captain of the Debate team. In her free time, Maya especially enjoys reading and taking long walks. Maya's favorite subjects to learn at school are English and Math. 

THE PROBLEM

 STEM education excludes a wide range of minority groups, forming educational barriers that prevent equal representation.

Gender

As of 2015, women filled 47% of all U.S. jobs but held only 24% of STEM jobs. While women hold almost the same number of undergraduate degrees as men overall, they make up only about 30% of all STEM degree holders.
(US Department of Commerce) 

Race

In February 2015, the amount of interest in STEM from African American and Latino groups dramatically declined below interest levels in 2000. African-American and Latino students are much less likely to have access to Advanced Placement courses in STEM fields. African-American and Latino workers  represent 29% of the general workforce population, but just 15% of the computing workforce and 12% of the engineering workforce. 
​(US News) 

Socioeconomic Status

In 2014, the National Assessment of Educational Progress gave out its first STEM subjects assessment, the Technology and Engineering Literacy (TEL) test, a national benchmark for youth's capabilities in STEM-related subjects. On a 300 point scale, students from low income families scored on average 28 points lower than their more affluent peers, reflecting the educational disparity between the two groups.
​(Washington Post) 
For a more comprehensive report on the lack of diversity in today's STEM representation, take a look at these eye-opening statistics compiled by the National Girls Collaborative Project:

      THE MISSION AND CONCEPTION

Educate, encourage, empower.
Founded in the Greater Seattle Area in 2017, EduSTEM seeks to increase diversity within STEM fields by targeting youth from underrepresented minorities at an early age. We believe that everyone, regardless of socioeconomic background, gender, or race, deserves an opportunity to pursue STEM on the same playing field as their peers. Rather than waiting for minorities to come to us, we go to the youths in hopes of providing them learning opportunities that are not accessible under ordinary circumstances. 
Growing up in the Greater Seattle Area, three girls noticed an incredibly uneven playing field among their peers when it came to STEM. Their observations during STEM club meetings, CTE classes, and other science activities led to one conclusion- a lack of diversity in STEM. After doing further researched, they realized that this issues starts at a young age and carries forward to reflect in today's workforce. 

Thus, in 2017, they conceived the idea of an initiative in order to provide a greater opportunities in STEM fields to youths in their community. With the support of many community organizations, adults, and families, EduSTEM launched in the Spring of 2017 at Jubilee REACH.