Meet headstartSTEM!
headstartSTEM is a student-led nonprofit organization that aims to increase transparency about career paths in the STEM fields and empower students from all backgrounds to pursue futures in STEM by providing free and equally accessible resources and opportunities. With the COVID-19 pandemic, almost all schools have switched to a remote or hybrid format, and many of the traditional opportunities to explore STEM like summer programs, research internships and job shadowing have been cancelled. Many questions are left unanswered: when will schools reopen? How will college admissions be impacted? When will our lives return to normal?
Natasha Matta and Giwoo Kim, two high school students from the San Francisco Bay Area, co-founded headstartSTEM to continue to provide these opportunities to explore the STEM fields amidst these uncertain and confusing times and form a community of like-minded high school and college students across the globe.
With high school students gearing up to apply to college and decide on a major, it is vital to expose them to the multitude of paths they can go down if they want to pursue STEM and provide resources to explore these different fields of study before post-secondary. We provide free access to breakdowns of the required education level and possible majors, average annual salary, and job descriptions for a diverse collection of careers in science, technology, engineering, and math as well as interviews, social media takeovers, and Q & A sessions with college students and professionals pursuing those career paths, who share valuable advice and insights into what a day in their work life looks like and how they got to the place they are today. We also have a database of opportunities that started with United States-based summer programs and research internships but since expanded to hackathons, pitch competitions, workshops, speaker events, and more so students from around the world can actively participate year round. All you need is an internet connection to gain access to all of our resources and watch and participate in our events. We interviewed professionals and covered careers in aerospace engineering, biomedical engineering, nanotechnology, neuroscience, psychology, chemical engineering, artificial intelligence (AI), data science, cloud computing, geological engineering, electrical engineering, and medicine among others. We want to show that STEM is not simply sitting at a computer or working in a laboratory. STEM can intersect with social good, business, art, music, advocacy, health, law, and so many other fields to better our society. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to STEM can yield insights that studying a single field could not. At headstartSTEM, we believe it is vital to bring voices from all different backgrounds and perspectives to the table.
We created this Medium publication to share the latest news in STEM in accessible blog posts and articles, discuss the relationship and interplay of science, technology & society, highlight youth making change in the STEM fields and education equity, and amplify a diverse set of student voices.
Connect With Us: Website, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or email us at headstartstemofficial@gmail.com!
