Full STEAM Forward

Systemic racism in education, and a lack of access to high-quality afterschool STEM enrichment programs, have prevented many women, especially women of color, from obtaining the skills necessary to access better paying careers in STEM fields. 

According to The National Science Board, women make up 47% of the current workforce but only 28% of the current science and engineering workforce. The number of women of color in science and engineering positions is less than 6%. This is especially distressing when one considers that STEM jobs are growing at 3 times the rate of non-STEM jobs and pay approximately 30% more. An obvious contributor to this race and gender gap is the underrepresentation of female BIPOC students in STEM related academic programs.

Research has shown that afterschool programs can foster improved attitudes and enthusiasm towards STEM among girls and other underserved groups. High quality afterschool STEM programs can lead to greater confidence in science ability, improved performance in scientific subjects, increased interest in STEM careers, persistence in the scientific pipeline, and changes in perceptions of who can do science[1].

Yet, many if not most after-school STEM programs are directed at middle and high school students, despite Microsoft findings that a majority of girls interested in STEAM at age 11 overwhelmingly lose interest by age 15.

For younger students from underserved communities, there is little to no access to these types of programs. While demand for afterschool programs in low-income Black and Hispanic communities is high, there are not enough programs available to meet those needs (America After 3 PM). As a result, a 2016 study found that children from low-income communities typically have 6,000 fewer hours of enrichment activities, compared with their middle-class peers, by the time they reach middle-school.[2] This lack of access to high-quality STEM enrichment programs has no doubt contributed to an underrepresentation of women of color in STEM fields.

Compounding the issue of availability, is an inability to safely get a child to and from what limited programs do exist. This has been identified as a primary impediment keeping low-income families from participating in after-school activities (America After 3PM). 

Thus, while research show that girls who participate in STEM activities outside of school are more likely to say they will pursue STEM subjects later in their education, we are falling far short on the supply side.  Full STEAM Forward is seeking to address these inequities head on by providing a free multiyear, after-school program which engages 3rd, 4th and 5th grade girls through multiple delivery formats in STEAM based learning and exposes them to a wide range of career opportunities.

[1] Clewell, B. and Darke, K. (2000). Summary Report on the Impact Study of the National Science Foundation’s Program for Women and Girls. Washington,DC: The Urban Institute Education Policy Center

[2] Sammet, K. & Kekelis, L., 2016. Changing the Game for Girls in STEM: Findings on High Impact Programs and System-Building Strategies.

Full STEAM (STEM + Art) Forward is a free 3-year interdisciplinary after-school enrichment program rooted in literacy. Over a 26-week school year, our young FSF scientists meet weekly for 1.5 hours/class via zoom and engage in a highly interactive bespoke STEAM curriculum incorporating Next Generation Science Standards and following the Five Es.  In addition, FSF offers a montly speaker series, inviting woman of color with careers in STEAM, to meet with our students and share stories about their dreams, passions, and careers. Research has demonstrated that for young children, “If they can see it, they can be it.”  After listening to guest speaker, Dr. Mande Holford, our girls were suddenly contemplating a career studying poisonous snails!

Specifically, in 3rd grade our girls study “Habitats of our World” (Rainforest, Oceanography and Extreme Environments) and in 4th grade “Our Changing Planet” (Paleontology, Climatology and Astronomy).  Each of these six modules is underpinned by a relevant book(s).  For our ocenography module, the girls read Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”; for the Rainforest they read “The Leaf Detective” by Heather Lang, showcasing Meg Lohman the first woman to study the rainforest’s canopy.  The underlying lesson and project for each week are linked to what the girls just read together.  For example, for the chapter “Stuck on a Reef”, the girls study the importance of coral reefs and compare, through a hands on experiement, the impact of tidal waves on a beach with and without a coral reef.  For their snack, the girls build coral polyps out of bananas and candy. 

In our 5th grade program, “Science in my City”, students apply what they have learned in 3rd and 4th grade through community based, socio-scientific experiences. The girls visit scientific or historical locations (planetarium, zoo, botanic garden, museum of Native American Heritage) either in person or virtually, to connect their understandings of the science fields to their city.  For each visit, they are presented with a difficult question to ponder that encourages their use of critical thinking.  “Are zoo’s good?” and “Who does land belong to?” are two of the prompts used in this program.

By offering these online, age-appropriate programs, we ensure girls engaged with FSF have consistent access to STEAM enrichment and continuous inspiration to pursue classes in the sciences throughout their formative school years.

FSF was developed to address the lack of STEM enrichment activities for BIPOC girls, from underserved communities, from 3rd through 5th grade and between the ages of 8 and 12. 

FSF partners with public and charter schools, and community centers located in low-income neighborhoods, to serve our target population of girls. Currently we serve BIPOC girls in partnership with elementary schools within the Ascend Public Charter School network in Brooklyn, New York, the Overbrook Educational Center in Philadelphia, Friendship Charter Schools in Washington, D.C and the Prince Dan Academy in Kajiado, Kenya.

The majority of our students in the US are eligible to participate in Free Lunch and Reduced-Price Lunch Programs under the National School Lunch Act of 1946. For example, one of our community partners, the Canarsie Ascend Charter School had 955 students enrolled in grades K-8 during the 2019-2020 school year. Within that population, 864 of the students identified as Black and a total of 691 students were eligible to participate in free or reduced lunch programs.

Furthermore, many of our students in the US are first generation—with languages other than English spoken in their homes. To support these girls, and more effectively communicate with their adults at home, we have added bi-lingual English/Spanish capabilities to the team.

Integral to our assessment procedure and development strategy, we continually seek feedback and involvement from the community we serve, including our students, their families and our community partner schools. Quantitative pre- and post-assessements are conducted and we augment those assessments with regular less formal discussions.

In 2021 we launched an online after-school enrichment program with the Overbrook Educational Center (OEC) in Philadelphia. Approximately one-third of this school’s students are visually impaired (VI). After seeing our afterschool program in action during the 2021-2022 school year, the Principal of the school asked if we could adapt our hands-on STEAM curriculum for a classroom of VI students and deliver it during the school day. In September of 2022, we launched this program and now deliver it in-person with an FSF educator, to a cohort of VI girls.  We were able to keep the core of the content intact and made modifications, as needed, to accommodate learning differences. 

Finally, we know family engagement reinforces learning and can drive the change that is needed to achieve a more equitable future. With each program year, we increasingly integrate family involvement into our programming. As an example, our new Science In My City program was developed in response to our 4th graders’ enthusiasm for STEAM programming and the families’ desire to keep their daughters in our programs for at least another year. As part of this new year-long program, the students attend five field trips to local scientific and historic locations.  An adult family member is encouraged to accompany each student on these trips, and turnout has been excellent.

Truthfully, this is a work in progress.  

FSF was started by a group of senior women in the heat of COVID—looking for a way to have an impact as the education inequality gap became more and more visible during the pandemic. Since our September 2020 launch, we have grown significantly and are tackling our team diversity issue head on. We have made significant progress but still have more to do.

Our teaching team, the face to our students, is now mostly women of color who come from schools similar to FSF’s Partners. They are very familiar with the needs of our girls—both academic and social/emotional. Today, 4 are based in NYC, 1 in Philadelphia and 3 in Kenya.  In addition, 2 are bi-lingual Spanish/English.  As we grow from a predominantly Zoom-based format to more face-to-face progrms—we are hiring teachers proximate to our Partner Schools.

In addition to our certified teachers, each zoom class is staffed with at least 1-2 mentors. Our mentors are college-aged students—mostly self-identifying women of color.  As many of our mentors grew up with similar challenges to those our girls face, there is an immediate rapport.  As our program matures, we hope to draw from our own FSF student population to serve in these (paid) mentor roles.

Our non-academic team is still largely volunteer-led by the founders.  Importantly, though, we have just hired our first paid non-teaching position—our Senior Director of Programs and Operations, who will hopefully transition to our future ED.  A deep understanding of the communities we serve was a primary evaluation criteria.  The position has been filled by a first generation Hispanic woman who has been serving children in the NY Public School system for several years. 

Finally, we are expanding out Board to include increased diversity of representation. We recently welcomed our first independent Board member, Dr. Yemmie Oluwatosin. Yemmie held the position of Senior Medical Director at AstraZeneca and the STEM Ambassador in the State of Delaware. We plan to add another 5-7 Board outside Board members in the next 2-3 years.

Recognizing that our program is still in the formative stages and that not all of us come from the communities we serve, we have made an extra effort to both formally and informally seek guidance. We do this by as many channels as are available to us including: formal and informal feedback from students; questionnaires, online sessions and informal dialogue with family members; and discussions with Partner School principals and their teams. Importantly, we have acted on much of the input we have received to date including: launching our middle school “Science in the City Program”, adding face-to-face events for 3rd and 4th graders, offering paid roles for parents who help us with supplies distribution, and increasing the frequency of our guest speaker program from once a month to twice a month. 

FSF partners with public/charter schools in under resourced communities to identify 3rd grade students that would be interested in our three-year programs. We currently partner with four elementary schools within the Ascend Public Charter School network in Brooklyn New York, the Overbrook Educational Center in Philadelphia (our program for Visually Impaired girls), and Friendship Charter Schools in Washington, D.C. With approximately 15 girls/cohort FSF currently is providing free programs to 135 3rd, 4th and 5th grade girls through these partnerships.

Additionally, in partnership with NYC’s Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), FSF recently launched a 12-week, face-to-face, STEAM pilot program to a new cohort of 20 4th and 5th grade girls. It is our intention to roll out the full 26-week program with 3 cohorts of girls in the 2023-2024 school year through this partnership.

Finally, FSF in Kenya brings a high quality, interactive, hands-on science program to an elementary school which previously had no formal science curriculum. We currently serve one cohort of 15 girls.

In the 2023-2024, FSF has budgeted to serve 210 girls across all our programs in the US and Kenya.

FSF is at an inflection point.  At just 3 years, we have much to celebrate:

• Built an outstanding bespoke 3 year STEAM curriculum for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade girls of color
• Piloted all 7 academic modules to assess what works academically and where we need refinement.
• Built a strong team of academics and just hired our first non-academic professional.
• Analyzed pre and post assessment data—both quantative and qualitative to evaluate the impact that the FSF is having on our students and their families
• Received quotes to outsource the packaging of our weekly project supplies.
• Grown from a small summer camp to a projected 210 students next fall. 

However, with this growth and our desire to scale further, we are facing a series of strategic and operational questions.

• What is the desired mix between our zoom programming and our face-to-face programs?
• How do we want to grow geographically?  East Coast Focussed?  Follow the Money? International presence?
• How do we want to integrate AI concepts/tech into our STEAM academics?
• How do we continue to recruit and train teachers –particularly as our face-to-face format requires proximate teachers; specifically, how do we codify teacher training?
• What non academic professions do we want to hire and when?
• How do we continue to shift our supplies packaging to an outsourced model?
• What monetization strategies should we be exploring.

We believe the 6-month Support Program that is offered to the winning team can contribute to addressing the above issues and more.  While undoubtedly the need for money is ongoing, we also need deepened expertise in thinking about how we focus and codify—as the opportunities are endless.  For example, we need to further consider the role of technology and how it can support our growth, how we balance the benefits of infrastructure expansion with the layering in of recurrent costs, lessons learned from others that have scaled and how to strike the right balance with monetization and other priorities.   

FSF believes that, with Tiger Global Impact Ventures, we can develop and implement a comprehensive growth strategy including monetization opportunities that will help us scale our impact and reach more students, families, educators and STEAM professionals.

Joni Bessler serves as FSF’s CEO.  As one of the co-Founders, Joni has been involved in every aspect of the development and growth of FSF.  As a retired Partner of Booz & co., Joni now devotes her expertise and passion to FSF—leveraging her decade in hands on Education in the US and China and global networks of gender equity leaders and advocates in the US, Asia, Europe and Africa. Since the launch of the FSF pilot program in June 2020, Joni has worked tirelessly to foster meaningful and productive relationships with both our community partners and directly with the students and families that we serve.

Our STEAM program is unique in the marketplace in five specific ways:

1. Research tells us that starting from early childhood, children begin to develop gender stereotypes about what activities and subjects are appropriate for girls versus boys. We have therefore chosen to start our solution early, with 3rd and 4th grade self-identified girls, as to help increase their interest and confidence in STEAM, and build their desire to continue taking STEAM courses throughout their schooling. Despite the challenge with measuring results and the logistical hurdles of delivering to a younger aged cohort, the importance of capturing their interest and creating a pipeline is paramount to solving the gender gap in the sciences.
2. Each module is built around a literary core designed to reinforce reading comprehension which then links to our STEM based experiments and Art-infused projects. This multi-disciplined approach encourages creativity and helps build the neural pathways needed to solve complex, multi-faceted problems. Each module uses a different literary book(s) to study different aspects of science. For example, FSF’s “Under the Sea'' module integrates projects in physics, engineering, geography, math, and art into an interdisciplinary program based on Jules Verne’s, 20K Leagues Under the Sea. Our students engage in projects ranging from experimenting with ballast, to contrasting the properties of fresh- and salt-water to building a compass.
3. In advance of each module, we provide each student with all of the materials needed to conduct their hands-on weekly science and art projects–packaged by class. In addition to the weekly supplies, each student is provided with a copy of our book(s) for that module and a computer device, if needed.
4. Our 5th grade program, Science In My City combines both virtual classes, 14 1.5-hour afterschool Zoom sessions and 5 in-person field trips to local historic and scientific institutions. These trips reinforce what the girls have learned over the past two years and support the connection between classroom learning and real-life day to day experiences and problem solving.
5. Finally, on a monthly basis we bring in a guest speaker (on zoom) to showcase the world of potential career opportunities.  After a brief presentation, our girls engage in 2 way dialogue asking any questions of interest. 

The biggest impact we could have on other providers of STEAM programming is to encourage them to start at a younger age. As mentioned, most programs start in Middle School, if not High School, despite research demonstrating that many girls will lose interest in the sciences by 5th grade or so. We will never solve the pipeline problem is we lose a large percentage of the available market before aged 12!

Our overarching impact goal is very clear: we want to encourage a sustained passion for the sciences and ultimately address gender equity in STEM by providing Free STEAM enrichment programming to young (3rd, 4th and 5th) grade self-identifying girls of color and and their families, across the globe. Through encouraging women of color to enter STEM, we can position their families in the fastest growing sector of the economy.

One Year Goals:

• Growth:  Nearly double our student population between this school year and next—to 210 3rd, 4th and 5th grade girls of color.

• Strong foot-hold into NYC Public Schools:  Leverage our current Pilot with the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) to build a sustained partnership.  For next school year we plan to add 3 new cohorts of 3rd graders in the NYC public schools. 

• An Inclusive Curriculum: We serve a cohort of Visually Impaired students at the OEC. This cohort has highlighted a dire societal need to enhance inclusiveness of STEAM programming.  We are working to refine our FSF curriculum and enhance its inclusiveness—both for visually impaired as well as other learning differences.  Specifically for next year, we will continue our program at OEC and refine FSF’s projects and experiments as we learn.

• Globalization:  Next year’s global impact goals are modest—we want to continue to offer our FSF program in Kenya, modifying our projects to utilize only locally sourced materials, to our cohort of 15 girls (year 2) completing our “proof of concept” for expansion across Kenya. 

• Teacher Development:  Our differentiation relies, in large part, on the quality of teaching of our bespoke curriculum.  With our growth in student enrollment, teaching formats and geographies, we need to codify and build a teacher training program this year.

Five Year Goals:

• Growth: Establish relationships with at least 10 Community Partners in the Eastern US—each offering a 3rd, 4th and 5th grade program of 15 girls (450 girls).  Note:  Next year we will be at 7 Community Partners including OEC. Target one of the above Community Partners to be from a Native American Reservation

• Strong foothold into NYC Public Schools: Separate from #1, build a meaningful presence in the NYC public school system with DYCD by partnering with at least 10 schools (3rd and 4th only) (300 girls)

• An Inclusive Program: Expand our Program for the Visually Impaired to a National Level with at least 6 VI program sites (3rd and 4th only) (180 girls)

• Globalization: Expand our Program within Kenya to at least 3 sites (combined grades) (45 girls)

• Teacher Development: Deliver a quality teacher development program to the teachers needed to execute the above.  Potentially expand the program for non-FSF STEM teachers as a way to monetize the teacher development program.

Key Enablers:

1. Expand our Board to include 5-7 additional outside members—strengthening our fundraising.
2. Build out our non-academic infrastructure, starting with an experienced, full-time ED to serve as the face of FSF.
3. Collect and analyze our impact data and publish our findings on the value of early intervention through STEAM enrichment programs.
4. Write and win grants!!

FSF programming is designed to achieve the following SMART outcomes:

·      By the end of students’ first year:

-       at least 80% will self-report positive attitudes and values towards and about science.

-       at least 70% will demonstrate either adequate or informed responses to Nature of Science (www.nsta.org/resources/teaching-and-assessing-nature-science) questions.

-       at least 80% will demonstrate proficiency in response to National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) content aligned assessment questions and prompts.

·      85% of students who complete the first year will continue on in the program for the second year.

·      By the end of the first year, 80% of FSF parents will report satisfaction with the program.

We use a mixed-methods approach to measure progress towards our SMART goals:

·      Student Questionnaires: Pre- and post- questionnaires are designed to collect student attitudes towards science, views on the nature of science, and science content knowledge. We use Likert-style questions adapted from the My Attitudes Towards Science survey (Hillman et al., 2016); open-ended questions, adapted from the Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire (Khishfe & Abd-El-Khalick, 2002); as well as questions in alignment with the 4th grade NAEP Assessment in Science, evaluating students’ content knowledge and critical thinking. Students take the survey during their first and second to last class of the year.

·      Student Participation: Student attendance and plans for continued participation are tracked throughout the year.

·      Parent Questionnaire: Completed at the conclusion of the program and consists of Likert-scale items and open-ended questions to collect written insight into their observations of their child over the course of the program and program satisfaction.

·      Student Focus Group: 30% of students who complete their first year with FSF participate in a focus group. with questions designed to elicit students’ attitudes towards science, views of nature of science, and science identities.

What follows are highlights of our analysis from the 2021-2022 FSF year:

·       More students agreed with the statements “I do well in science,” “I like science classes,” and “Science is easy for me” (P=0.0374).

·       There was a 135% increase in the number of students interested in pursuing STEM careers.

·       Students provided more informed responses to the question “what is science?” suggesting increased understandings of the NoS.

·       There was a statistically significant difference in the number of students who agreed with the statement “people need to understand science because it affects their lives” (P=0.0387). Students reported connecting science more to their own lives and becoming more curious about the world.

·       There was a statistically significant difference in the number of students scoring 70% or higher on the assessment questions measuring content knowledge (P=0.0001). Many of the students attributed performing better in school to FSF. Students reported higher grades and deeper understandings of science content in school.

·       All parents/guardians who participated in our assessment reported 100% satisfaction with the program and reported increased science interest and confidence in their child.

Goal: Increase the number of women of color in STEM careers by engaging girls in afterschool STEAM enrichment programs designed to instill a love of science and a desire to pursue a career in STEM.

Outcome: More women of color pursue and succeed in STEM careers thereby closing the gender and racial gap in STEM fields.

Need Statement: The US requires a greater number of STEM-trained workers to remain globally competitive. The current shortage of STEM workers hampers the nation’s ability to thrive in technology-driven industries, scientific research, and innovation.  Underrepresentation of women, particularly women of color, in STEM is influenced by systemic gender and racial biases in education and social norms which discourage girls and women from pursuing careers in the sciences.  

Economic Ramifications: The insufficient number of STEM workers negatively impacts the U.S. economy by hindering technological advancements, reducing innovation and productivity, and limiting the country's ability to compete globally. Addressing the shortage of STEM workers through increased representation of women of color in STEM careers can unlock economic growth, foster innovation, and enhance the nation's competitiveness.

Theory of Change Model:

1. Inputs:

   - Full STEAM Forward’s enrichment programs targeting 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade girls.

·       Unique features of the FSF program:

-       Starts in 3rd grade and lasts until 5th to increase interest and confidence in STEM before entering middle school.

-       Incorporates reading comprehension into STEM-based experiments and art-infused projects.

-       Engages students in hands-on science and art projects.

-       Monthly guest speakers showcase potential STEM career opportunities.

2. Outputs:

·       Positive impacts on program participants:

-       Better grades, increased self-esteem, lasting love for science.

-       Desire to continue taking STEM classes in high school and college.

·       Indirect impacts on family members, teachers, and school administrators:

-       Ability to see positive change in girls' self-esteem and attitudes towards science.

-       Recognition of girls' capabilities for STEM careers.

3. Medium-Term Outcomes:

·      Increased self-esteem and confidence among participants.

·      Development of scientific thinking and problem-solving skills.

·      Enhanced creativity and innovative thinking.

·      Greater confidence and engagement in school.

4. Long-Term Outcome:

·      More women of color pursue STEM careers, thus closing the gender and racial gap in STEM fields.

·      Beneficial economic impact on the United States:

-       Increased availability of qualified STEM workers.

-       Greater innovation and productivity.

-       Enhanced global competitiveness.

5. Impact on Other Providers:

·      Encouragement to start STEAM programs at a younger age based on the success and positive impact from FSF programs.

·      Influence on schools to promote STEM education and career paths for girls by engaging more teachers, administrators, and guidance counselors.

By implementing FSF enrichment programs and addressing the systemic barriers faced by women, particularly women of color, in STEM fields, this Theory of Change model aims to create a sustainable pipeline of girls interested in pursuing STEM careers. Through early intervention, interdisciplinary learning, and engagement with professionals, the model seeks to empower young girls, bridge the gender and racial gap in STEM, and contribute to the economic growth and competitiveness of the United States.

Our solution is not tech-based per se—but we are heavily reliant on Zoom to deliver the program. 

As already mentioned, we launched during COVID.  The only way to reach our students was through Zoom.  Now, even with students back in the classroom during the day, many of our girls go directly home after school as their schools are not yet able to provide after care programs.  Zoom remains the only way to engage them in our program.

Finally, for our program in Kenya, and targeted additional programs globally, the Zoom platform enables us to have our US based teacher on the screen while the girls are co-located in their classroom and with a local teacher(s)—thus educating the teachers along-side of the students.

Full-time (VP of Education and Senior Director Programs and Operations)- 2

Contractors (teachers and mentors) - 8

Volunteers 8

Currently, only FSF’s VP of Education and the Senior Director of Programs and Operations are full-time paid positions. Our certified teaching staff and mentors are employed on a contract basis. Everyone else involved in running FSF works without pay because of our deep commitment to tackling gender and socio-economic inequity in education.

FSF was created in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the terrifying number of kids “disappearing” from the public school system and increasingly visible inequity in education, we wanted to test whether we could engage girls in an academic STEAM program on Zoom for 4 hours/day. Our two-week summer camp launched in August 2020 with 12 BIPOC girls.  Student and family quantitative and qualitative feedback was extraordinary and, based on that feedback, we rolled out FSF as a free afterschool STEAM enrichment program for 3rd and 4th grade girls in the Fall of 2020.

FSF offers free STEAM enrichment programs to girls of color in underserved communities. Our goal is to inspire girls to stay in school and pursue a career in the fastest growing segment of our economy. This work is central to our commitment to creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce. As such we are focussed on DEI in all respects—from our programming, to our team, to our family interactions.

We are committed to hiring teachers and mentors of color – over half of our current teachers and mentors are women of color and several are bi-lingual. 

Our teachers are acutely aware of the social and emotional challenges our girls face and we work hard to create a safe environment to exchange ideas.  We also adapt our teaching practices, as necessary, to meet the needs of our student population.  For example, we have modified our materials and projects for our students with visual impairments;  for our emerging English language learners, we now offer a bi-lingual class.  And, for our girls in Kenya, we have adapted our projects/experiments to ultilize locally available materials.  Importantly, though, we do not compromise on the course content or quality with these modifications.

We encourage and foster  relationships with our students’ families by sending them information, in both English and Spanish (and Haitian Creole as needed), about the mission and curriculum of FSF, by providing updates after each class to encourage dinner conversation and by soliciting feedback from them at the end of every program.

Our classroom sessions are complemented by a montly speaker series where we invite a BIPOC woman STEAM professional to talk with our students about their lives and career paths.  We want to demonstrate to our girls the huge range of exciting career opportunities available to them.  “If you can see it, you can be it”.

At the leadership level, we are very focussed on creating a diverse team.  Our Board now has representation from the LGBTQ community as well as a very senior woman of color.  And, we have just hired our first Hispanic Senior (non-academic) Leader into the position of Sr. Director of Programs and Operations.

Finally, our multi-year partnership with NY Foundling introduces another element of inclusion into our program—neurodivergent adults. We work with adults in NY Foundling’s Job Preparedness Program to package our materials. This partnership has been beneficial to both organizations.

FSF is a non-profit organization focused on providing STEAM enrichment education to BIPOC girls in underserved communities. As a non-profit, FSF's primary goal is to provide value to the populations it serves through its programs and services, rather than generating revenue for its own financial gain.

Our model is a partnership model.  We seek partners (public schools, charter schools, community centers, etc.) that are located in neighborhoods likely to serve our target student population.  Alongside of our Partners, we identify a cohort(s) of 3rd grade girls who will commit to our 3 year academic STEAM Program.  We are not looking for the “brightest” but rather those girls (and their families) who value the opportunity FSF offers.

Our program benefits 4 groups:

• Most importantly is our young girls. We do everything possible to create a fun and academic learning environment.
• Related is the family—that can include siblings, parents & grandparents.  Increasingly, we are looking for ways to involve the families and reinforce the fun of learning.  Girls leave each class with dinnertime discussion topics.   We invite an adult to attend each 5th grade feedback and the whole family is welcome to attend our zoom Speaker Series. 
• Thirdly is our teachers.  As we expand our zoom format to include a face to face format, we are recruiting and training local public school teachers.  These are teachers who already are strong teachers but will still benefit from our additional training.
• Finally is our partner schools.  FSF has become a draw for enrolment in those cases where parents have a choice.  And, we know that our student’s grades have increased as a result of FSF—of huge benefit to the school and its funding. 

As we have no “brick and mortar” our financial model is very straight forward.  Today, the majority of our costs are variable with teaching costs the largest segment and supplies/materials 2nd.  Our fixed costs include the insurances, marketing/PR, tech, etc.  Because the majority of our non-academic staff are still the founding team and volunteers, we are not carrying significant infrastructure costs. That will change with time.

On the revenue side, we are dependent on awards, grants, foundational and personal donations. With the DYCD partnership, we now have Revenue to cover those NY public school programs.  Where we have not yet gravitated is monetizing of our teaching capability, curriculum, etc.  It is on our agenda to consider but not yet a priority.

FSF's strategic funding plan dictates that we seek funding from a variety of grantors and family foundations, corporate partners, and individual donations.

As FSF becomes widely known as a provider of OST STEM programs, and potentially expands to other regions in the US, we anticipate continued grant renewals from existing funders.  For example, FSF was awarded the Society for Science STEM Action Grant for a second year in 2022 and we hope to renew more funding for the second time in 2023. We now have also forged relationships with other funders, such as Grant Makers for Girls of Color (3rd year) and YASS Prize Alumni (CER STOP Award), that continue to provide unrestricted funding in our third year of programming.

We increasingly are looking to build relationships with Corporations.  Most have CSR Foundations and are quite excited to sponsor something in their local markets.  We have received such funding from Booz Allen Hamilton and Interdigital and have two additional corporate relationships in play for next year.

With the successful pilot with DYCD, who covers the costs of our program with the NYC Public Schools, we plan to expand in the Fall.  DYCD will provide our first recurring (non-grant) revenue stream for the organization.  If rollout proves successful, we can replicate this revenue model with other public-school districts in other states.

In addition to our partnership with DYCD, we are exploring other monetization opportunities—both within and outside of the US. With the recent appointment of our new Director of Operations and Programs, we will further explore potential monetization opportunities including the licensure of the curriculum, the development and marketing of FSF’s STEAM project kits to the general public, opening our training program up to science teachers beyond FSF, etc.

FSF has received the following funding since 2020:

Awards
Center for Educational Reform 2021 STOP Award $100,000
VELA Education Fund Grant $10,000
Society for Science 2021 STEM Action Grant $5,000
Society for Science 2022 STEM Action Grant $4,000
YASS Alumni Prize $50,000
Corporate Sponsors
InterDigital $10,000
Grant Makers for Girls of Color $100,000
HootSuite $14,000

Foundations
TD Bank Charitable Foundation $20,000
Glenn W. Bailey Foundation $20,000
Booz Allen Foundation $45,000

Private Donations/Fundraising
(Private) Family Foundation $100,000
Family Foundations other $20,000
SteamMark Foundation $30,000
Various family, friends and supporters via regular online fundraising campaigns $46,492