Too few girls are encouraged to pursue STEM at an early age, so I decided to provide more opportunities to learn about STEM in an innovative, fun, and engaging way. I held multiple STEM nights where I collaborated with over 20 engineering organizations. Some key organizations were the Society of Women Engineers, Girls Who Code, the Robot Garage, Michigan Science Center, and Michigan State University WIE. The students loved participating in the engaging presentations and live demos.
To market the event towards K-6th grade students, I contacted administration at all 20 elementary schools from 3 school districts (Novi, Northville, Farmington), reaching out to over 25,000 people. I worked with local restaurants such as Little Caesars to donate food and arranged for music with DJs. The Novi Education Foundation (NEF) is a nonprofit that funds creative, educational enrichment programs in the school district. I was the first student to receive a grant from the NEF since their inception in 1986. I also worked with 8 local businesses to secure sponsorships of $2,100. To secure volunteers, I reached out to over 600 students through platforms such as TAB (the Novi Library volunteer group), HOSA (Future Health Professionals), Novi Youth Council, and National Honor Society. By partnering with my high school robotics team as well, I've secured a total of over 120 volunteers that have attended my events throughout my project.
The first STEM Night had a total of 159 people, the second one had 259, and the third one 743 people in attendance. Over the past year, I’ve had a total of over 1,150 attendees. The results were amazing: 86% of students said they were more interested in pursuing a STEM field.
I was thrilled to see my hard work I had put in daily and 400+ hours I had put in come to life at STEM Night.
Amazed with the far-reaching impact of my work, the assistant superintendent of my district invited me to a district-wide STEM Equity panel. I was 1 of 7 panelists, and the youngest. Here, I collaborated with technology leaders such as Kathy Giori, a Senior Product Manager at Mozilla, and Jessica Kempany, a Senior Executive at Toshiba, about how we can empower girls to pursue STEM fields in school.
This inspired me to start my nonprofit organization, STEM Without Boundaries, in the State of Michigan. On the website I made, I’ve provided a global platform for people to easily access STEM resources, including 17 instructional activities to do at home! I've created a chapter at my school to train students to lead STEM Night and am expanding to other school districts in Michigan to start chapters. Our nonprofit’s mission is to start sustainable STEM Nights in every community with mentorship, training guides, and student committees. Now with an established board of directors, I’m applying to greater grants from places such as Bosch and Riley’s Call for Kindness.
Currently, we are working on a Tech Series and partnering with professionals in the field and college students to provide insight and advice to high school students during these tough times.
I also implemented a weekly STEM program at Feed the Need, a summer lunch program that provides meals for children who would normally receive free/reduced lunch in the school year. I developed the curriculum, secured funding, recruited volunteers, and taught interactive STEM lessons for 60+ students. We are now providing brown bag STEM kits in a collaboration with our high school robotics team.
Check out Maansi's cause here: stemwithoutboundaries.org
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