Opening Opportunities for Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)

Visit AAUW's new website on STEM.

There are many projects devoted to increasing the number of girls interested in STEM across the country, and the premise of the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) is that these programs could be more effective if they worked together.
Often, individuals working on one "girls in STEM" project are unaware of similar projects nearby. The goal of the NGCP is to facilitate collaboration among projects so that they can share resources, work together, and learn from one another. A big part of the National Girls Collaborative Project is the creation of a Program Directory of these girl-serving projects. You can find the Program Directory here.
The Program Directory allows organizations interested in creating more opportunities for girls in STEM to register and learn about similar organizations in their area. Another big part of the NGCP is the mini-grant program. NGCP will make $1000 mini-grants available to collaborations of 2 or more participating programs who apply through the Program Directory.
For example, if one organization has meeting space with computers available, and another organization has mentors and girls available, the two organizations both register in the program directory and then apply for a $1000 mini-grant to help pay for the costs of their joint event.
The NGCP is now accepting applications for mini-grants! Click here for more information on mini-grants.
Click here for a list of mini-grants awarded from September, 2007 - May, 2008.
The NGCP will also provide research-based promising practices in informal learning environments and evaluation and assessment to the participating programs to help further advance the work of these girl-serving projects.
AAUW members across the country are acting as Regional Liaisons for the National Girls Collaborative Project. These Regional Liaisons help the people involved in the NGCP to make connections — to one another, to resources on gender equity, and to AAUW.