Jr.Tech Girls STEM Summit
High school girls are craving more connection with STEM minded peers and seeking knowledge about STEM career paths. Girls STEM Summit reinforces and enhances girls’ passion for STEM. We believe in exposure – exposure to career path ideas, exposure to learning experiences, exposure to female role models, and exposure to the personal benefits of earning a STEM degree. We want girls to pursue their passions and fall in love with the possibilities of STEM careers.
What is Girls STEM Summit?
- A STEM program for 8th – 12th grade girls
- For girls interested in exploring STEM fields and career choices
- Features female STEM professionals and industries
- Highlights emerging and existing STEM careers
Girls attending Girls STEM Summit will:
- Meet with successful women working as STEM experts, and work directly with them in hands-on career sessions.
- Be exposed to STEM industries and career options by attending career tracks.
- Hear an inspirational keynote speech by a female leader in a STEM field.
- Learn best practices for applying to colleges with STEM programs.
- Meet other students with similar interests.
Girls STEM Summit Goals:
- Impact and bridge the gap between girls’ passion for the topics and helping them find their way to successful STEM careers.
- Inspire girls to pursue STEM Fields.
- Fill an important gender gap in STEM jobs today and into the future.
- Present topics and learning sessions in a way that makes STEM topics interesting, relevant to career paths, and approachable.
What attendees are saying about Girls STEM Summit:
- “Inspired me to look more at different career paths in STEM.”
- “Very informative and a great opportunity.”
- “Great for my future in STEM because I know more about what I can pursue!”
- “Taught me new things in engaging ways.”
- “Awesome! I was able to learn so much more about many interesting STEM topics.”
Girls STEM Summit background:
The initial idea evolved as we recognized girls’ sought STEM career information beyond the standard acronym of science, technology, engineering, and math.
Additionally, a growing gender gap in STEM fields inspired us to work with girls and impact the gender deficit. We also wanted to inform girls of the benefits of having a STEM degree to both their personal and professional lives. We believe a STEM-skilled labor force builds the economy and strengthens the United States’ ability to remain a competitive player in the world, and we want to help develop those skills. Jr.Tech set out to deliver its first pilot event in 2011, serving 103 high school girls across Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
We hosted two additional events on Cape Cod in 2012 and 2013, serving 95 high school students each year. It was clear we hit an information need. Jr.Tech rebranded the event, calling it Girls STEM Summit, and made it a regional event. The first regional Summit ran in 2013 called Girls STEM Summit–West/Central, serving 101 high school girls. Next, in 2014, we hosted Girls STEM Summit–North with 124 attendees and Girls STEM Summit-East with 121 attendees. In 2015, Jr.Tech scaled-up the regional summit to a statewide initiative, enabling us to work with and inspire more high school girls across Massachusetts. Jr.Tech hosted the first Girls STEM Summit–Statewide model in 2015, doubling registered students to 256 girls.
We hosted Girls STEM Summit–Statewide for 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 averaging 282 girls at each Summit. The COVID-19 pandemic broke four weeks before the 2020 Girls STEM Summit-Statewide impacting Massachusetts, the United States, and the entire World. However, we pivoted quickly and delivered a virtual, pre-recorded program. All 272 registered students and school districts were able to view, pause, proceed, or replay all presentations remotely. For Girls STEM Summit-Statewide 2021, Jr.Tech developed a virtual, interactive, live summit and served 250 attendees.
For 2022 and 2023 Girls STEM Summit-Statewide was back as an in-person event hosting over 300 students.
