Moonshot Project to Propel Girls into STEM

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 10/12/20

Could a "moonshot" effort draw a million more girls and young women into STEM fields? That's the intent of new initiative that will embed STEM learning opportunities into out-of-school programs over the next five years. The "Million Girls Moonshot" is being funded bu a consortium of foundations, including the Intel Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the STEM Next Opportunity Fund and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The organizations will provide grant funding and in-kind resources to 100,000 afterschool programs that are part of the Mott-funded 50 State Afterschool Network. That program reaches 10 million young people.

Help will include technical assistance, educational resources, access to Intel's She Will Connect partners and mentorship from STEM experts, including Intel employee volunteers.

Additional funding and programming will come from a number of other organizations, including Qualcomm, Technovation, National Girls Collaborative Project, CSforALL, JFF, Techbridge Girls, STEMconnector, NASA and Lyda Hill Philanthropies.

"When my father, Robert Noyce, and Gordon Moore founded Intel, they built upon the experiences of their youth, where they had opportunities to build, invent, engineer and experiment. These hands-on experiences gave them a sense of initiative, perseverance and a belief that they could create revolutionary new technologies," said Penny Noyce, founding board chair of the STEM Next Opportunity Fund, in a statement. "The Million Girls Moonshot will help girls from diverse backgrounds develop this same engineering mindset, and I'm thrilled at the way it continues the legacy of Intel's founders and their passion for advancing STEM."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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