The STEM Belle

There is a huge deficit in the number and quality of STEM teachers available to support public school students in low income communities. With the Elevate Prize, we will expand our recently launched STEM Teachers Fellowship, which recruits and trains STEM teachers to become 21st century educators. We will then empower and deploy these teachers to under-resourced community schools, where they will teach STEM modules with better pedagogy and teaching models. With the Elevate Prize, we would set up Tech hubs in our impact schools. These hubs will be run by our STEM teachers on a curriculum basis, and the girls would have the rare opportunity to participate in STEM after school programs and gain 21st century in-demand skills needed to excel in STEM careers. Studying STEM in secondary schools is expensive, especially for girls from low income families in under resourced communities. With the Prize, we would scale up our piloted STEM kit, a student’s kit that is targeted at providing girls with resources needed to complete Science classes in secondary schools. We would also continue to harness partnership opportunities to  expand our reach and deepen our impact in Nigeria and beyond. 

I am a dedicated representative for women in science from developing countries who firmly believes that women and girls can be everything: elegant in stilettos and confident in steel toes. In 2017, I founded The STEM Belle with an objective to get more girls from low income communities fit for the future of STEM and ultimately close the gender gap in STEM fields. My work to recalibrate the female representation in STEM fields has been recognised by Nature Research and Estee Lauder, where I was named the 2019 Innovating Woman in Science. I am also a 4th year PhD student at the University of Nottingham where I am researching the relationship between hen feed efficiency and egg quality and safety, funded by the Schlumberger Faculty for the Future Foundation Fellowship. The University of Nottingham has also featured my outreach activities and in 2020, I received the University of Nottingham Cascade grant to advance the work at The STEM Belle. I am constantly inspired by Michelle Obama’s words to young people, to ‘get a good education, and then use the education to create a country worthy of their boundless promise’.

Only about 30% of women are represented in STEM fields globally and less than 25% in Africa. However, by 2030, 75% of all jobs will require skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and women are at the risk of losing out from this incoming  global revolution due to the existing gender gap in STEM careers. This gap, caused by factors which could be systemic, socio-cultural and institutional, is a global concern and its severity is more in low income and marginalised communities. In Nigeria, a significant percentage of the population are classed as low-income earners, and their wards attend public schools which are typically under- resourced. Girls in these schools do not have access to quality STEM teaching and infrastructural facilities, and the STEM teachers in these schools are largely unqualified, uninspired and few. The STEM Belle is a non-profit initiative that is eliminating barriers that hinders the access and delivery of STEM education to young girls and their subsequent uptake of STEM careers. Through our unique strategies and impact model, we are getting more girls and teachers fit for the future and with the objective to recalibrate the female representation in STEM fields. More details here.

Our projects which targets to develop indigenous teachers (the principal custodians of knowledge and development), and empower marginalised girls in low income communities; (important contributors to sustainable nation building and development) is providing access to quality STEM education and skills for all, getting girls fit for the future of work, ensuring inclusivity and closing important gender gaps. Our projects are future oriented and designed with a bottom-top and centre out approach to sustainably have impact at the individual, school, community and global level. Our project has a sustainable Attract-Retain-Advance impact model, which has been innovatively developed and tested, and is yielding great impact even at its growing scale. Our program ideas and delivery methods are firsts of its kinds. The prospective Tech hub and current boot camp, students’ kit, Teachers’ Fellowship and teachers’ kit, are first of its Kind in Nigeria strategies which will increase the opportunities for girls to participate in the modern economy, drive economic empowerment for women and girls and better the world when a more diverse talent pool participates in the STEM workforce.The models for all our strategies and projects are not biased. They can be replicated in various communities irrespective of tribe, religion, race, gender. 

To solve this global challenge of shortage of women in STEM fields, The STEM Belle is correcting stereotypes that are hindering girls from joining STEM, creating awareness about the diverse careers which can be explored in STEM, providing STEM career mentorship for girls in schools, reducing the high cost of studying STEM, empowering girls with  in-demand STEM skills needed to flourish in STEM careers, building 21st century teachers who are qualified and inspired to deliver effective STEM teaching for maximum engagement and learning, and finally, developing female students with a renewed and positive perspective who will also go on to influence their world and inspire to their school peers and the next generation of girls to also take up careers in STEM fields. Read independent impact evaluation report here.

With the Tech hub planned to be set up with The Elevate prize, girls will now be privileged to engage in a curriculum-based STEM after school program which will further equip them with skills and and confidence for the future of work. We are doing this, because when women have equal access to education and modern skills, the whole world benefits. Further, the world needs science, and science needs women.