I dream...supporting youth STEM Education through Tinker Academy

The 2023 Tinker Academy participants share their dreams and aspirations in STEM. Girls Tinker Academy was founded in 2018 to address a problem: girls were falling out of the STEM “pipeline” in middle school. The reasons for this were well-documented in numerous national studies: unfounded perceptions that “girls aren’t good in math and science”; cultural and societal norms that discouraged girls from pursuing STEM careers; and a lack of relatable role models in STEM. Girls Tinker Academy was designed to tackle these challenges by providing engaging STEM enrichment, near-peer mentorships, and the opportunity to form friendships with likeminded girls and young women in Sonoma County, California. The strategy has proven successful year after year with participants reporting increased self-
confidence, improved STEM proficiency, and greater motivation to pursue STEM pathways as a result of the program.