Top Five: Organizations to Join for STEAM Careers
Early STEAM programs are awesome but sometimes they only focus on the K-12 demographic. National statistics have shown less than 23% of girls and women maintain a continued interest in achieving STEM higher education or careers due to a lack of educational enrichment resources, tools, and support after 5th grade. In communities across cultures, the statistic is even lower at 8% for Black, Hispanic, and Latino communities. Here’s our list of the Top 5 organizations to join if you’re interested in further developing a STEAM career. These incredible organizations have the networking and resources that will not only help you prepare for your dream STEAM job but also make sure you get PAID doing it!
The National STEM Society is a STEM education, research, and teaching institution where individuals can advance their learnings in STEAM as well as financial literacy, and small business management skills. Their network of STEM Ambassadors as well as their inspirational SPARK STEM career coaches encourage girls to fight for equality in STEM fields.
2. WEPAN: Women in Engineering ProActive Network
WEPAN is a non-profit educational organization founded in 1990 that advocates to fully embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion while connecting people to increase participation, retention and success of women and other underrepresented groups in STEM from college to executive leadership. Their signature events including Women of Color Summit and Women in Engineering Program Day are yearly highlights.
3. AWIS: Association for Women in Science
AWIS champions women in STEM and works to ensure that all women across all disciplines in the field can achieve their full potential. The organization provides career development, networking, mentorship, and leadership opportunities. Additionally their helpful ‘career center’ on their website highlights featured STEM jobs that you can apply for.
Million Women Mentors is a premiere network of professionals dedicated to encouraging women all around the world to pursue and succeed in STEM fields. Their research shows that women in STEM careers drop out of their fields within the first 12 years. However, their research also shows individuals with mentors have improved academic, social, and economic prospects which is ideal for young women looking for increased opportunities.
5. AAUW: American Association of University Women
AAUW has awarded over $135 million in fellowships and grants to more than 13,000 scholars and organizations in 50 states. Their dedication to empowering women to help overcome not only the gender employment gap in STEM fields but also the gender pay gap is highlighted by recent Pew research that shows a typical STEM worker earns two-thirds more than those employed in other fields.
