Early Intervention

Life Long Skills Building

From age 8 to 14, girls' self-confidence falls by 30 percent. Initial engagement in middle school and high school is simply too late; at this point those participating in STEM activities have already self-selected to seek an opportunity at a time when others in their peer group are losing interest.

Our goal is to provide meaningful engagement with STEM before the drop-off point rather than during it. Children can enroll in Rosie Riveters beginning at age 4 and programs currently extend through middle school; this structure is designed to get young women excited about and interested in STEM well before they encounter barriers discouraging their participation.

Through every program and every project, we use STEM skills to engage and ingrain in girls that failure is valuable. That the bumps and bruises of learning and life are what will ultimately help them to succeed. For many it can be a very emotional journey, getting it wrong can be frustrating and hard. In fact, the words we hear the most when we begin a session are “this is hard” and “it’s not fair.” But by the time we’re done, everyone has completed a project- they’ve succeeded and have gained an understanding of the power that comes from learning when you just jump in and try.

Our participants walk away not only with an increased confidence in their abilities but a road map on how to use those abilities in a highly competitive marketplace and in life.

Innovative Programing

Commitment to Continued Engagement

When students sit and listen passively in a lecture-style environment, they retain 20 percent of the information. When they are given the chance to practice what they have just learned, that percentage increases to 75 percent.

Our projects don't come with a set of instructions. Instead we equip girls with the knowledge they need to navigate and understand a STEM concept. Using a completed example and a set of objectives, girls design and independently build their own projects.

Our goal is to provide at least one 4-week program per year in each market, supplemented by quarterly Saturday "reunion" sessions that allow previous participants to return and build upon their skills. These programs have a proven track record of positive participant re-engagement.

We firmly believe that early and repeated engagement - the key component of our programming structure- is crucial to shifting the representation of women in STEM.