Poster: Building the STEM pipeline through collaboration: Montana Girls STEM Collaborative

The Montana Girls STEM Collaborative brings together organizations and individuals throughout Montana who are committed to informing and motivating girls to pursue careers in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The Collaborative offers professional development, networking and collaboration opportunities to adults who offer and/or support STEM programs for girls and other youth typically under-represented in STEM. The vision of Montana Girls STEM is that every young person in Montana has the opportunity to learn about STEM careers and feels welcome pursuing any dream they may have.

The Montana Girls STEM Collaborative was launched in 2012 by Montana NSF EPSCoR with co-leaders at Montana State University's Extended University and the University of Montana's spectrUM Discovery Area. Volunteer board members are located throughout the state and represent industry, government, K-12 and higher education. As part of the National Girls Collaborative, Montana is one of 33 Collaboratives serving 41 states. Together, they facilitate collaboration between 36,400 organizations who serve 20.15 million girls and 9.5 million boys.

In five years, Montana Girls STEM has brought more than $100,000 of external resources to Montana through partnerships with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, California Academy of Sciences, TechBridge Girls, Women’s Foundation of Montana and the University of Chicago. Montana’s Collaborative especially strives to reach rural communities and other typically under-served audiences.

This poster was presented at the National Science Foundation EPSCoR national summit (Missoula, Montana; November 2017) and the NSF INCLUDES Summit (Washington, D.C.; January 2018)