Outreach
I will never forget the New York Times article I read in high school claiming American students do not need to learn algebra or any math class beyond.
Algebra is an onerous stumbling block for all kinds of students: disadvantaged and affluent, black and white. In New Mexico, 43 percent of white students fell below “proficient,” along with 39 percent in Tennessee. Even well-endowed schools have otherwise talented students who are impeded by algebra, to say nothing of calculus and trigonometry.
Perhaps instead of not requiring algebra to get rid of this “problem,” the writer should have considered why these students were unable to grasp the material. I believe that everyone can learn algebra (maybe not everyone can and should learn calculus), but it takes a bit more creativity in how to teach the subject on the teacher’s part that accomplishes this goal.
In fact, I believe a lack of proper mathematics education is actually oppressive. My understanding of mathematics enabled so much of what I have been able to accomplish in terms of research but also gave me confidence I never knew I could feel. Knowing how math could be used in engineering applications felt powerful. Unfortunately, too many students in America do not get to feel the way I do about mathematics not because of a lack of intelligence but because of a lack of resources. This is the problem I want to rectify.
Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Outreach Programs for Middle School Girls
In college, I co-founded the Code It! program, which targeted middle school and high school girls who were interested in learning how to use computer science to solve a variety of engineering problems.
Despite the fact that women used to make up the majority of computer science majors decades ago, these days the proportion of computer science majors at colleges in the US that are female is extremely low. Beyond computer science, other engineering majors do not fair much better.
Thus, my goal was to expose girls earlier on to coding and get them comfortable with the skill before they enter college. From first hand experience, I can say that it can be very intimidating to major in computer science with a bunch of guys who have been doing coding projects since they were kids. My first CS lecture was a blur of lingo only those who had actually coded could understand even though it was not a pre-requisite to have coded before.
As an experimentalist in the physical sciences, I also wanted to introduce more girls to science and engineering more broadly. Thus, I ran the Discovery Unlimited program, where each Saturday for a semester we would have science demos and then hands-on activities for students to participate in. These demos included alginate spherification, tower or bridge building and load bearing, and Arduinos that could be reprogrammed.
How you can help: Please consider donating to the Society of Women Engineers to better support programs for encouraging girls to study STEM.
Minds Matter Mentoring
In New York, I had the great pleasure of becoming a part of the organization Minds Matter. This program would set up mentors in pairs with a high school student from a lower-performing high school in the city and allow mentors to guide the student through their formative years. The goal was simple: broaden their horizons on what is possible for them to achieve. The results were often very amazing with many mentees heading off to Ivy League colleges. My own mentee had several personal struggles at home that I found very hard to help with. But, I think our biweekly interactions were nevertheless still beneficial to her. The overall experience made me realize that even a little goes a long way.
How you can help: There are Minds Matter chapters in many major cities across the US. You can help out by donating to the organization of signing up to be a mentor!
Future Advancers of Science and Technology (FAST)
At FAST, we worked with high school students in low-income neighborhoods of San Jose and helped them develop research projects that they present at county-wide science fairs. I loved seeing my students, who initially join FAST with lots of curiosity but little technical experience, build an entire, functional home air quality control system from scratch by the end of our time together. I found that the hands-on learning they do through project-based work more effectively teaches them skills like coding and the physics behind building a robot than the traditional lecture-based learning would. Creating small milestones for them to feel a sense of achievement as they learn also was successful at keeping students engaged. The goal was not always science-oriented, but rather sometimes I spent time answering their questions, such as why attend college, what to major in, which schools to look at, and how to apply. These students were often the first in their families to even consider attending college, so FAST mentors like myself were one of their only resources for exploring this option. Over the 4 years that I was a part of FAST, I worked with 6 amazing students, who told me that they see research and science differently than they used to before they did FAST.
How you can help: FAST is an entirely graduate student-run program at Stanford University. If you are a current Stanford graduate student interested in joining the organization or someone interested in contributing financially, check out the FAST website for the current leaders to contact.