World STEM Works

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We use STEM to inspire and empower underserved and underrepresented K-12 students and community members through interactive professional dialogues, leadership development programming, and hands-on activities.

Standings & Awards

321 out of 422 in North America
462 out of 778 in Education
116 out of 173 in Scale
312 out of 992 in Charitable
2246 out of 4003 Overall

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VOTES

World STEM Works

We're using STEM to inspire and to empower, to build bright futures and enduring communities.

Who are we?

World STEM Works (WSW) is a newly-founded global undergraduate student organization that strives to combat the US general public's steady and alarming decline in STEM [*] (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) interest by educating and inspiring K-12 students and community members to pursue a passion in STEM.

What kind of impact do we want to make?

Our four core goals are:

To inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and physicians.
To create a more scientifically literate public to make better informed science policy decisions.
To foment the maturation of civic leaders among students and professional to engage with society.
To build a network of international scientists and engineers to share resources and knowledge, and set the stage upon which solve some of the world's greatest problems can be solved.

How are we making this impact?

WSW grows what we've termed Empower chapters at universities across the US, that in turn reach out to local K-12 schools and communities. This proactive outreach consists of (1) hosting dialogues with panels of STEM professionals and civic scientists, (2) cultivating young leaders through leadership development programming, and (3) hands-on STEM activities. We call our approach the Empower model, and we've described it in detail in our "Supplementary Information" document, under the Support Your Idea section of this profile—we highly recommend that you take a look!

What's the bigger picture?

In conclusion, we want to first inspire—to spark curiosity, questioning, innovation in the youth. We give them the interest and incentive to pursue a passion in STEM, and then empower with our three-pronged outreach initiative, arming them with the tools to pursue this passion. We want to go beyond what other groups do—beyond dry, technical STEM education and create a well-rounded, able youth, and an informed, scientifically literate general public. We believe our multi-faceted approach is a unique, effective, and powerfully synergistic one with much potential. If you think so too, we'd greatly appreciate your vote in support of our mission. Thank you.

Support Your Idea Optional (5 - 7 minutes for three uploads)

Supporting Document:

Supplemental Information (Overview)

Activity Modules Budget Breakdown

Business Plan

Roadmap to Success Optional (1 - 3 minutes to upload)

Roadmap to Success:

roadmap_to_success.pdf

Sponsors, Investors, and Supporters

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation?

Our Empower model is both low-cost and high-return, at an estimated $8 per student, per year cost. Our current impact statistics (taken from a 1500 student study through our flagship Houston chapter, Rice Empower) are that 91% of students involved in our movement were inspired to pursue passions in STEM fields. World STEM Works is a positive outlier in the pool of start-up organizations, and we're only improving.

2. Who gains the most?

Our outreach is designed so that anyone who attends, whether they're a K-12 student, a university undergraduate involved in an Empower chapter, a community member, teacher, or STEM professional involved in one of our dialogues, benefits profoundly from the experience. We seek not only to promote STEM, but to use it as a tool to bring people together, to teach and enlighten, and to create enduring communities. As such, everyone benefits in different, invaluable, and unquantifiable ways.

3. Who pays?

World STEM Works is a not-for-profit organization, so we fund our initiatives by applying for funds from private and public foundations, as well as state and federal funds. Recognition through the Dell Challenge would mean a lot to us, and we'd greatly appreciate a vote if you support our mission.

4. What is your success?

As we add 5 additional chapters this year (Arizona State, MIT, Stanford, Texas A&M, and Yale) to our current 5 chapters (under "Sponsors"), we'll continue to gauge what percentage of students in which we spark a passion for STEM, and what percentage pursue this passion by going into a STEM career or degree. Obtaining consistent, upward-trending statistics over many years will verify both the effectiveness of the Empower model and the substance of our movement—this is the success we aim for.

5. How will you do it?

We have defined expansion plans: we've assigned point values to the world's top 200 universities and set point milestones throughout the next five years. We aim to reach our goal of 30 chapters by the end of 2013 by building a World STEM Works-spurred STEM community through mutualistic, incentivizing inter-chapter relations, by obtaining the necessary funding, and through the calculated use and continual improvement of the Empower model as described in our "Supplemental Information" document.