Growing from STEM Jewelry to STEM Style Subscription Boxes
Sci Chic’s journey of expanding and pivoting
Passing the one year mark as an entrepreneur is a big milestone, but also makes you do some reflecting. I started my company Sci Chic back in October 2015 during my 4th year as a mechanical engineering student at the University of Florida. Inspired by my experiences at outreach events, my goal with founding Sci Chic was creating a tangible connection to STEM topics, sparking everyday conversations about science, and encouraging young girls in science and engineering. Over the past year we have done this by creating science and engineering inspired jewelry using 3D printing and pairing it with educational materials.
However, at this one year mark I was inspired to take what we are doing to the next level to create a bigger impact. Pivoting is one of the most important parts of entrepreneurship. You can’t be too in love with your ideas that you are not willing to reflect, receive feedback and adjust to make something even better.
I realized the most rewarding thing about running Sci Chic for the past year has been connecting educational materials with our jewelry for both kids and adults and building a community. This has now led me to launching monthly subscription boxes: Sci Chic Kids and Sci Chic Monthly.
Both subscription boxes have a theme every month that covers a different area of science or engineering, exposing kids and adults to areas of science they know and love, and new ones for them to learn about. Each box is filled with science fashion and educational materials related to that theme.
Kids boxes contain plastic 3D printed jewelry, items ranging from stickers to hair accessories, a 3D printed charm to add to a charm bracelet they get in their first box, flyers about that month’s STEM topic, and a STEM star role model from that field.
Additionally, online we post a video 3D printing the items, as well as supplementary educational materials to explore. Adult boxes have a similar mission, but have at least one metal 3D printed item in every box and higher end science fashion ranging from nail art to tote bags to represent the STEM fields in a fashionable way.
By reaching kids and adults over a series of months we are hoping to show that creativity and beauty exists in all areas of STEM, and give people a tangible connection to their learning experiences. After receiving our first reactions, I already know launching this box was the right choice. I got an email from a mom who homeschools her daughters that said, “Our girls opened their Sci Chic January boxes today and loved everything! Loved the YouTube video and extra info on coding. This is a totally new topic for us so we had a great homeschool coding lesson for our Friday. They can’t wait for February’s surprises!”These type of moments are exactly why I started this company in the first place and only excites me to keep pushing forward.
Sign-ups are open now until February 19th for our March box, Chemistry.
Originally published at www.erinwinick.com.
