Other Speakers-

Carla Emanuele-Giza, New York Academy of Sciences, Associate Director of Education

Yamilee Toussaint, STEM from Dance, Founder and CEO

Presentation Title: Innovative Ways to Sustain STEM Interests and Career Paths for Girls

Abstract: Despite efforts, a sizable gap and a leaky pipeline still persists for girls to continue their interests in STEM majors and career retention. Inequities in pay, treatment and male dominated opportunity-sharing still plague numerous education and corporate sectors in the US. In order to remain competitive in the STEM global market, all innovative minds need to be acknowledged and given an equal platform to excel. Organizations like the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum’s, the New York Academy of Sciences and STEM from Dance acknowledge and utilize their specific skill sets and knowledge-base to provide participants with unique opportunities and perspectives to excel in STEM areas and other components of educational development. Each program identifies overlapping as well as unique attributes that their audiences need to build out and create accessible, dynamic and often completely free programming to assist our next generation in building essential skills. By focusing on leadership, community-minded engagement, professional communication skills, self-efficacy and accountability, these three NY-based programs have been able to impact young women, especially girls and women of color, all over the world to truly generate a global network of STEM-centered students who are prepared and energized to change the world. The next logical step in our dynamic collaboration is to continue to grow the overlapping outreach across communities and introduce young women to the concept and importance of cross-collaboration with our example. We see students fully grasping the availability of mentorship and guidance as a tool for success and seamlessly working their way from program to program throughout their formative years (middle school through high school), eventually landing in a position where they themselves choose to continue the mentorship cycle by supporting programs like ours.

Biography: Shihadah “Shay Saleem” is senior museum educator and co-founder of GOALS for Girls at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Shay obtained her B.S. in geology at Alfred University and her M.S. in marine geomorphology at the University of South Florida. As a graduate student in Florida, she was a mentor for two years at the Oceanography Camp for Girls. Yamilee Toussaint is the Founder and CEO of STEM from Dance. She earned her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and her M.S. in Education from Pace University. She is also an avid, life-long dancer of many styles. Carla Y. Emanuele is the Associate Director of Education at the New York Academy of Sciences. She designed and oversees two virtual mentorship programs for high school students in STEM and has worked with over 600 students all over the globe to date. She has a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Drew University and has a background in alternative education spaces.