Fighting SySTEMic Inequity

Gender-based disparities in STEM higher education (only 35% female) and careers (only 20% female) are not a product of different interests or competencies between non-male students and their peers.  It’s hard being the first; if young people don’t see themselves represented in a field, they might not even consider it an option. This applies to all underrepresented populations in STEM, especially economically disadvantaged, non-white, LBGTQ+, first generation, and female and genderqueer students.  

Participation rates get smaller and smaller as these students progress through the stages of STEM education because the environments are dominated by the “traditional majority” — cis white straight men typically from an educated or high-income family.  Additionally, it is extremely hard to start pursuing STEM at a collegiate-level, since college applications focus on which classes you took or activities you partook in.  What is someone going to choose: a challenging field both subject- and environment-wise or something familiar?  Even getting involved in middle- or high-school is difficult — by then, most students know their general interests or “social spheres” which could dissuade them from taking STEM courses as classes become more specialized, especially if it’s an unfamiliar environment.  We must ask ourselves:  how do we make sure students are encouraged to participate in STEM activities and classes from a young age and that a lack of prior knowledge does not discourage potential participants?

We are Red Hawk Robotics (RHR/2713), a nonprofit High School FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team focused on giving every student in Melrose, MA access to high-quality, hands-on STEM education through after-school robotics programs.  Founded in 2009, we have been fighting population-based disparities in STEM fields for over 10 years, though post-COVID, our efforts have grown considerably.  Alongside our main task of designing, building, and coding an industrial-sized robot in 6 weeks, we’re also inspiring the next generation of diverse, capable, and confident STEM innovators.  We accomplish our mission by: 

1. Student pipeline:  Fully subsidizing, organizing, and (our HS students) mentoring all robotics programs in Melrose: 11 elementary-school FLL teams, 3 middle-school VEX teams, and our main high-school FRC team, providing ~120 4th-12th grade students with a hands-on STEM education every year.  

2. Recruitment and retention inside of our student pipeline, but continuing recruitment at the high school.  It is never too late to start; prior experience or knowledge does not determine a student’s role on our teams.  In fact, the student-leadership system we have developed allows more experienced students to help their peers, who eventually also pass on that knowledge.

3. Breaking down barriers to entry:  There is no entry-fee for joining the FRC team — all students at Melrose High School (MHS) can participate fully regardless of means.  All of this is supported by student-led fundraising. 

4. Proactive recruitment to all:  Understanding the different backgrounds people come from — inclusivity is a priority, not a box to be checked.  We do this through demonstrations and presentations (e.g. to a Melrose Girl Scout troop, at a community fair, or at our High School’s club fair). 

5. Student-created alumni network:  Through our alumni network (on Linkedin, etc), our students gain connections and are supported through every step of their transition into STEM higher education.  We also have and continue to receive support via mentorship and donations.

6. Collaboration with other STEM nonprofits:  We’ve partnered with local organizations like the SDM foundation, donating our supplies and having students mentor free summer STEM courses.  We aid in their mission to ‘make technology easy’ for — and accessible to — everyone in Melrose and beyond. 

85% of our alumni pursue STEM-related higher education and careers, 18% of which are advanced degrees.  Even the 15% who don’t pursue STEM careers still learn leadership, critical thinking, teamwork, and time management skills, all of which are essential to success in a professional environment.  In fact, having 15% of our alumni still commit so much of their time to exploring their passions in STEM regardless of whether they plan to pursue it speaks volumes on how we are reframing robotics to be for everyone.  Especially since there is no gender-, race-, or class-association with a 2713 student’s likelihood to pursue STEM.

Red Hawk Robotics (RHR/2713) is based in the Melrose Public School System. There are currently ~120 students participating in Melrose robotics programs across our 14 teams.  Additionally, 2713 has hosted the Rumble, an FLL qualifier (24 teams), for 10+ years, hosting 300+ attendees.  Our team consists of an ~30% female-identifying student population, with an additional estimated 10% with a gender-non-conforming identity. ~40% of our students are non-white.  

Alongside mentoring our subsidiary programs (FLL and VEX), our students volunteer inside our community and spread their love of STEM and robotics.  This fall, two students worked with a local Girl Scout troop (8 elementary school girls) to earn their robotics badge.  All the girls expressed that they “didn’t know STEM could be so fun!” and planned to start an FLL team through RHR.  The same sentiment was echoed at a sold-out, student-taught STE(Art)M (“STEAM”) demo/class at Follow Your Art, a local studio.  As mentioned previously, our high school students teach free classes via the SDM foundation to people of all ages in our area.  

In addition to students pursuing STEM at higher rates, 2713 is also giving them an experiential advantage in their future: 

1. Our two 2023 Dean’s List nominees are girls, one of whom was selected as a NE District Championship Semi-Finalist (1 of 20 in NE). 

2. Our female and non-binary students met with and presented to our local American Association of University Women (AAUW) branch as well as the MA AAUW Co-Presidents. 

3. Three Red Hawk Robotics students (two of whom are female) presented to industry professionals at our sponsor PTC’s annual user-conference LiveWorx on our use of Onshape (our CAD software) and the impact it has on both our students and the world around us.  They were the first high school students to ever present at this event. 

In the past two years, three of our female and non-binary students have been recognized by the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) as an Aspirations in Computing MA Affiliate Honorable Mention (2023), a MA Affiliate Award Winner (2023), and a National Honorable Mention (2022).

Red Hawk Robotics (RHR/2713) is the primary educational STEM organization in Melrose.  Through partnering with local non-profits (see What is Your Solution?) and pre-existing children’s groups (see Who Does Your Solution Serve?), we are able to help students who had never considered joining STEM activities explore their passions and capabilities on our different teams.  Additionally, the engineering department (computer science and CAD) at Melrose High School (MHS) is relatively small — only 2 out of 60 teachers are technology-focused.  The FRC (high school) team works closely with our engineering department to recruit students (either RHR → STEM classes or STEM classes → RHR).  Because of this connection, our students are able to learn and apply both practical and conceptual STEM knowledge. 

We also have a diverse group of student leaders — role models to both their peers and younger students.  As mentioned previously, RHR students pursue STEM higher education and careers at much higher rates, and often return to the team to mentor the next generation of students (25% of our current mentors are RHR alumni and an additional 45% are FIRST alumni).  That is, we are fully sustainable membership-wise.  Additionally, our team’s location in the Greater Boston area — rich with STEM education and careers — allows talented young STEM professionals to mentor our students and for our students to receive opportunities (see Who Does Your Solution Serve?) either as graduates or current students.  We have also become a staple in our community through student-written newspaper articles and our community outreach events.

There are ~120 students across our 14 programs.  As mentioned previously, over 300 elementary students and (FLL) coaches attend our annual FLL Qualifier.  Additionally, through community presentations and RHR-taught classes, we reach 50+ Melrose students.  All together, our program serves over 470 students every single year, providing them with a high-quality, hands-on STEM education.

Red Hawk Robotics (RHR/2713) is applying to the Gender Equity in STEM Challenge because we would like to partner with and learn from like-minded organizations, including ones that have made significant inroads in leveling the playing field for young women and non-binary students in STEM.  The various resources and support available to successful Challenge applicants will be used to develop RHR female and non-binary students for current and future leadership roles.  They will also be used to train all RHR members, particularly those in or leaning towards leadership roles, whether female, male, or non-binary, to recognize gender bias and inequality and its many forms and to modify behavior accordingly.  Developing female and non-binary  leadership at the RHR high school level and deliberately showcasing that diversity at the middle and elementary school levels should encourage younger girls and non-binary students to continue their fledgling interest or their committed pursuit of STEM as they progress in school.  

We further hope to gain insight as to how best to scale our solution, particularly at the elementary and middle school level, where for the most part teams are highly dependent on parent and student volunteers.  We would also hope to learn proven approaches (and perhaps create new ones) for increasing community involvement in our mission.  In particular, we would benefit from approaches for working with a public school system to provide more “in-school” opportunities for STEM, and in particular robotics.  All of this would help us to create a robust and continuous infrastructure for our solution for years to come.      

Finally, although our team is currently sustainable both financially and membership-wise, there are many costs and logistics associated with maintaining our current suite of programs and goals, including our committed goal of reaching and participating in regional and/or world championships in future years.  This past year has seen the RHR high school team compete at the world championship for the first time in its history.  We would like other RHR teams to have that same exhilarating experience, including those students who might not otherwise participate due to socioeconomic background or other financial hardship.  Funding from the Challenge would be spent to achieve these goals (see Successful Examples of Achieving Financial Sustainability).

Having lived in Melrose her whole life, Kate is committed to bettering her community through spreading her love of STEM and robotics.  She understands the difficulties female and non-binary students experience participating in STEM activities first-hand, and advocates for her peers at every step of their STEM journey.  From volunteer work at a local food bank to academic research on systemic inequality, Kate has discovered a passion for fighting against inequity in her community.  With that experience, she’s committed to removing financial barriers to involvement via tireless fundraising for RHR.  She’s in both technical and logistical parts of the team — ensuring every member of the Red Hawk Robotics community (from FLL to VEX to FRC) is supported both technically and personally.  When she’s not designing or building a robot, Kate is organizing and participating in community demonstrations to prospective RHR students.  She also mentors 2 FLL Challenge (elementary school LEGO robotics) teams.

National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) Aspirations in Computing bimonthly newsletter.

Our solution is deceiving — short term, we’re creating robots; but long term, we’re giving our students the skills and confidence they need to create their own future.  That’s the basic idea of FIRST Inspires, but on Red Hawk Robotics (RHR/2713), we’re also universalizing STEM education and activities. We do this through stressing the creative-nature of robotics at demos, encouraging students to explore their passions in all aspects of our team from programming to fabrication, etc.  We are a completely self-sustainable organization.  Volunteer mentors teach our high school students who then "pay it forward" by teaching middle school and elementary students in our programs.  For reference, 25% of our mentors are RHR graduates, and an additional 45% are FIRST alumni.  Red Hawk Robotics students learn STEM topics and ideas hands-on.  They gain real-world, experiential knowledge, learning from their mistakes — and successes!

Red Hawk Robotics (RHR/2713)’s mission is to create an environment that fosters student curiosity and intellectual development in STEM through FIRST.  We define success as the continuation of our program and its efficacy.  More than 85% of 2713 alumni have pursued careers in STEM, 18% of which are advanced degrees.  Additionally, participation in robotics offers advantages outside of STEM-based professions (i.e., leadership and problem-solving skills applicable in most every work environment).  Team #2713 exists to give students in Melrose the opportunity to realize their STEM capabilities. Our primary (non-technical) goals are as follows: 

1. Diversity demographics match (or exceed) those of the Melrose Public School System through creating a team environment in which all students feel comfortable and supported in their pursuit of STEM. 

2. Ensure all students have the opportunity to explore their passions for and capabilities in STEM free of cost. 

3. Continue providing our students with an experiential advantage as they graduate from our programs

See Who Does Your Solution Serve?

Red Hawk Robotics is inspiring the next generation of STEM innovators.  The robots our students design, build, program, and compete with are the conduit for their self-discovery.  Neither creating robots nor inspiring our students would be possible — or as impactful — without the other.  We participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), meaning that we have ~6-8 to create a robust and effective robot, starting in January at “Kickoff” where we learn the basic rules and objectives of this year’s game.  While our solution is technology-based, and there are costs and logistics associated with that, the robot we build changes year-by-year.  

FRC robots are constrained in weight and size: under 125 lbs, with a frame-perimeter less than 120 inches, and shorter than ~48 inches fully retracted.  Our robot consists of both consumer parts (mainly electronics and universal hardware) and our custom ones.  We reuse the former year-by-year, but must redesign and remake anything custom.  This year’s task was to manipulate two different game pieces — a rubber cone and inflated cube (both of which roughly fit into a 10” cube) — and place them on an angled “tic-tac-toe”-like scoring grid.  We designed our robot to maximize efficiency while minimizing degrees of freedom and risk.  We chose a Swerve Drive Specialties MK4i drivetrain after investing both time and money developing an off-season swerve chassis.  “Swerve” is basically a system of motor-powered casters (think, a shopping cart) — 4 independently steered and driven wheels or “swerve modules.”  Using a 4-bar linkage mounted on the carriage of an angled continuous elevator, we were able to move our wide, “touch-and-own” end-effector to exactly the right position while intaking and scoring game pieces, while also maintaining a mechanically- and electrically-simple design.  We fully integrated logging and visualization into our code, allowing us to quickly and proactively identify not only issues, but also their cause.  Simulation made it possible for progress to be made both physically on the robot and in software, greatly increasing our productivity and readiness for competition season.  We are continuously iterating throughout both our build (6-8 weeks) and competition season (8 weeks),  Additionally, we model our robot fully in Onshape, our CAD software, before fabrication and assembly, coinciding with and based on our prototyping.

Red Hawk Robotics (RHR/2713) is a school-based extracurricular, and all members of our team are volunteers and/or students.  RHR has ~30 students and ~14 mentors.  Our fundraising and PR team consists of approximately 8 students and 3 mentors/adults.

Our team has been fighting gender-based disparities in STEM for 14 years.  In the last 3 years (post-COVID), our efforts have grown considerably.

Inclusivity is our #1 priority on Red Hawk Robotics (RHR/2713).  Our students are the next generation of STEM innovators; limiting which minds create our future is inherently detrimental to that same future.  We create and maintain a diverse team by removing traditional barriers to involvement, e.g. finances, lack of representation, logistical challenges, etc.  We tackle each of these issues by: 

1. Removing financial barriers:  No entry-fee to join any RHR team.  All students in Melrose have the right to explore their STEM passions and capabilities through 2713 regardless of means.  And they participate fully — all RHR high school students attend the New England Championship (travel event) free of cost, and the World Championship (in Texas) f0r the cost of air-fare (with a financial aid program).  

2. Students are able to see themselves in our diverse group of mentors (adult volunteers who work in STEM fields) and student leaders (in the last two years, 40% female and 40% POC), thus envisioning their own success in STEM higher education and careers.  Our high school students act as role-models while mentoring our FLL and VEX teams, and frequently return to Red Hawk Robotics after graduating to mentor the next generation of students.  Additionally, we support LGBTQ+ students both on and off our team via RHR-branded pronoun pins and hanging pride flags in our shop and in our “pit” at competitions.  

Accommodating our students’ needs:  We recognize the different backgrounds and identities of our current and prospective students, and work with them, those in the community, and school administration to accommodate their needs.  For example, we are strategizing to make our programs accessible to METCO students who live in Boston and attend school in Melrose.  The METCO program aims to create a school environment in which students from different backgrounds can learn alongside one another.  These students face obstacles to involvement, but we have recently taken steps to design our programs around their needs in discussions with school administration and others in the FIRST community.

Red Hawk Robotics is a financially sustainable non-profit organization.  We receive no monetary support from either the City of Melrose or the Melrose Public School System.  We are entirely self-funded via corporate and community sponsorships.  At the end of our competition season — and the beginning of our “off-season” — the RHR fundraising team performs an exhaustive review of our revenue and expenses for the year.  We then create next season’s budget, including everything from food costs to registration fees to air-fare, all estimations based on previous actual- and estimated-costs.  

We gather a list of prospective sponsors, either past/current or entirely new.  We approximate expected revenue (i.e. asking price * probability) from each sponsor, and from there we estimate our total expected revenue.  Initially comparing our expected-revenue and -costs forces us to alter our budget or expand our list of potential sponsors.  Throughout the “off-season” (summer and fall), our fundraising team regroups and updates the status of potential sponsors — accepted, declined, communications sent, etc — finalizing our budget along the way.  That is, by Kickoff (the start of the “on-season”), our budget is set and has the financial backing to support it. 

As mentioned previously, we are fully financially sustainable.  From grant-writing to fundraisers to pitches, Red Hawk Robotics (RHR/2713)’s fundraising team works tirelessly through the “off-season” to ensure the accessibility of our program.  To support our goal of removing financial barriers to involvement, we raised $65,000 for our 2023 season, almost 2x our 2022 budget and over 4x our budget pre-COVID.  Besides traditional fundraising methods, 2713 has recently introduced 2 innovative fundraising tactics: 

1. World Championship Pledge:  In addition to a base-sponsorship, a “World Championship Pledge” means a sponsor has agreed to conditionally donate more, depending on whether the team qualifies for — and attends — the World Championship (WCMP).  Our primary placement-goal for the 2023 season was to attend the WCMP in Houston, TX AND ensure students were not responsible for the entire cost of the trip.  For reference, excluding air-fare, attending the 2023 WCMP cost RHR ~$21,000 (for hotels, registration, food, ground-travel, etc.).  Students and families that could, covered the cost of round-trip air-fare; however, we also instituted a no-questions-asked financial-aid program for students who could not cover the cost of air-fare.  Attending the WCMP — competing alongside, learning from, and showcasing our technical and non-technical work to the best robotics teams in the world — is a life-changing experience for all of our students.  Our WCMP Pledge system allowed us to give all of our students this incredible opportunity.  

2. Sponsor Retention:  We believe the progress we have made in outreach, robot-performance, and technical skill must be communicated — notably, to our sponsors.  Through demonstrations (e.g. to our long-time sheet-metal sponsor Churchill at their workplace) and presentations (e.g. three RHR students presenting at our sponsor PTC’s annual user-conference, LiveWorx, on our technical work and impact), we are proving that their investments in our team and students are positively impacting the STEM industry and community. 

Listed below are some of our 2023 sponsors, all acquired via grant applications and/or pitches to company leadership. Bold indicates a multiple-year sponsor. 

1. Minutemen Automation Systems (pitch) — $3.000

2. Motorola Solutions (grant) — $6.500

3. BAE Systems (grant) — $2,000

4. Wolf Greenfield & Sacks (pitch) — $2,500

5. PTC (grant) — $1,000

6. Raytheon (grant) — $2,500

7. Bayer Fund (grant) — $3,000

8. Gene Haas Foundation (grant) — $2,500

9. NASA (grant) — $6,000

10. Corning (grant) — $2.000

11. Insource (pitch) — $5,000

12. Intuitive (grant) — $1,500

13. Hologic (grant) — $5,000

14. Individual donations — $6,500

15. Community organizations (pitch) — $2,000