STEM
Sally Ride Science Junior Academy Lands $30,000 Grant for Scholarships
Sally Ride @ UC San Diego has been awarded a $30,000 grant that will allow it to give scholarships to
middle and
high school girls attending the Sally Ride Science Junior Academy.
The grant from the San
Francisco-based Hellman Foundation will fund
scholarships over the next three
years for the program launching this summer with a slate of workshops
in science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) aimed at
young women
in middle school and high school.
"Our goal is to inspire them to stick with their
natural interest in STEAM
and to consider STEAM careers," said Tam O'Shaughnessy, Sally Ride @ UC San Diego executive director,
co-founder
and Ride's longtime partner.
The
program is the result of a partnership between the University of
California San Diego and Sally Ride
Science, an education company that Ride and O'Shaughnessy co-founded
with three
friends in 2001. Ride, the first American woman in space, was committed
to
expanding educational opportunities in the sciences, especially for
girls and
young women.
Offerings
at the academy scheduled July 11-29 will include a variety of STEAM
courses
where students can immerse themselves in hands-on projects, assuming
the roles
of a geophysicist, ocean engineer, computer scientist and beyond. The
workshops
also will incorporate real-life stories of individuals conducting
research in
each discipline with the goal of inspiring students to pursue careers
in STEAM
fields.
Workshop
topics include the science of earthquakes, space exploration,
oceanography,
robotics, 3D modeling and video game programming. Each workshop will
include a
three-hour session — in either the morning or the afternoon — each day
for a week.
Cost of a workshop is $150 and more information on the Junior Academy, as well
as scholarships, is available.
Sally
Ride Science @ UC San Diego also offers professional development to
teachers; K-12
STEAM courses, lectures and events; and online programming via UCTV,
a television station
with programming from the University of California system. The program
is
conducted through collaboration among three divisions of the university:
Extension, San Diego
Supercomputer Center and Scripps
Institution of
Oceanography.
Ride was among the first six women chosen to join
the astronaut corps. She
was aboard the space shuttle U.S.S. Challenger when it launched in 1983
as the
first American woman to go into space. After retiring from NASA, she
joined UC
San Diego's faculty as a professor of physics. She also served as CEO
of Sally Ride Science until her death from pancreatic cancer in 2012.
The Hellman Foundation was founded in 2011 by
financier Warren Hellman to
support education, youth development, health and basic needs.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.