A new nonprofit, Black Girls Do STEM, has earned approximately $320K in grants to date. The largest grant donated by New School Venture Fund Racial was announced at the end of October.
STEM fields have always overwhelmingly been dominated by white men according to Pew Research.
“We are reducing barriers that lead to disproportionate access to education and also building economic mobility,” Cynthia Chapple, Black Girls Do STEM founder and managing director, said. “We’re reducing barriers for Black communities going into high earning fields.”
Black Girls Do STEM (BGDS) was established in 2018 and became a nonprofit in March of 2019. The day program is for Black girls in grades six to eight. The workshops cover Cosmetic Chemistry, Food Science, Engineering Design, Robotics, Forensic Science, and Biotechnology.
“A lot of research supports girls developing their identity and how they see their STEM capabilities at a middle-school age,” Chapple said.
Black women had the smallest share of STEM degrees in 2018 out of the U.S.’s large ethnic groups. Asian women make up 5%, Latinx Women 4%, while Black women only make up close to 3%, according to Catalyst. Catalyst is a research organization that focuses on women’s equity.
The new St. Louis nonprofit is experiencing a successful opening year in funding. The $50K Boeing Global Engagement grant was the first grant BGDS received.
BGDS served 55 girls in 2021. Chapple said next year’s goal is to serve 120 girls.
Black people make up only 5% of American physicians compared to 6% Latinx and 15% of Asians in the U.S.
“With reflection, I noticed a sense of isolation being the only Black girl, and it made me think about, ‘why’s that?”’ Chapple asked. “Being a Black woman in STEM, I often was the only Black woman, and typically only minority in a lot of rooms that I was walking into.”
The grants BGDS received from August to October include $40,000 Racial Equity and Forward Through Ferguson, $40,000 Tide Foundation by an anonymous donor, and a $10,000 Education Fund National.
As for what motivated her to accomplish bringing more representation she said her background feeling isolated was a primary factor. Chapple, a Chicago native, who studied at Indiana University and Southern Illinois University earning a Master’s degree in physical chemistry.
“When I went outside of my neighborhood, I was the only Black kid from the inner-city neighborhood,” she said. “ I still always noticed I was different, whether it be socioeconomic, standing out in a space.”
After moving to St. Louis to work for Anheuser-Busch Cos. in 2013, Chapple said she later felt empowered to utilize her educational background to provide an experience she wished she had as an inner-city Black girl.
“A lot was happening here for gender equity, but it wasn’t focusing on inner-city low resource areas,” she said. “That prompted me to ask questions in the community. We named the problem repeatedly, but we didn’t take any action ourselves. I wanted to change that.”
Chapple said BDGS now has 24 volunteers consisting of her industry connections from the Society of Women Engineers.
As for the future, Chapple said she hopes BGDS can eventually serve their capacity, which is 160 girls, during the entirety of the program year from March to October. She described the three-hour STEM workshop as a collective experience where the girls meet once a month.
“We do one on one mentoring, social-emotional learning exercises with social workers. We try to have a fully immersive experience,” she said. “Our girls get social, personal development, understanding, and access to Black women mentors.”
Still transitioning from the ongoing pandemic, Chapple said the workshops were about 70% virtual using Google Classrooms and 30% in person at a designated community site this year.
The number of girls taking part is growing. Last year, Chapple said the organization would have around 12 to 16 girls attending. This year, BGDS served 20 girls in person and 35 virtually.
“The best time to help social, personal and cognitive development is during that middle school age where girls are defining themselves for the first time. It’s such an impressionable age.”
“As a kid growing up in the South side of Chicago, I only had the opportunity to engage with people from my neighborhood,” Chapple said.
Girls perform just as well in advanced science and math going into highschool according to the National Science Board.
The gap begins the longer girls are in school, compounded by race and class issues and girls taking fewer higher-level STEM courses, a Stanford study found. The study also showed girls often do better than boys on math in racially diverse districts, while boys perform better in affluent white districts.
As for what motivates Chapple, she shared a proverb.
“I am going to take up space; I am going to live my values out loud,” she said. “I just want Black girls and Black women to know that we are as competent, as capable as anyone. We should not shrink ourselves, we should take up space.”
