Photo courtesy of Girls Inc.

Despite the challenges presented by Covid-19 throughout the summer of 2021, Girls Inc. and New College have found a safe, innovative way to encourage girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Currently, women only make up approximately 28% of the STEM workforce. Together, Girls Inc. and New College hope to combat this issue by launching a new, intensive program called “Eureka!”

The Eureka! program is an advanced five-year STEM, personal development, and sports program for girls entering the eighth grade. Girls Inc. has selected 20 young women from throughout Sarasota County to participate in the inaugural cohorts. While Girls Inc. offers afterschool and summer programming at their site on Tuttle Ave, the Eureka! program is held offsite on the New College Campus. This partnership is integral to the success of the program as it allows girls, many of whom will be first-generation college students, to imagine themselves on a college campus. 

Within the first summer of this partnership, New College has supported Eureka! participants through detailed scientific research, presentations with college professors and staff, hands-on engineering projects, and so much more. Eureka! programming will continue throughout the school year at Girls Inc., until Summer 2022 when girls will return for anther college intensive on the New College campus. In the latter years of the Eureka! program, girls will participate in paid internships that focus on their college and career goals. 

“We were so pleased to host Girls Inc.’s Eureka! Program on our campus over the summer. Building community partnerships is crucial to New College’s success and we were so glad to introduce these girls to a college science environment—we hope some of them join our campus community in a few years,” said MaryAnne Young, executive director of the New College Foundation.

The Eureka! Program is free to all participants and new applications will open soon to any girl entering the eighth grade in the 2022-2023 school year. For more information on the program, please visit girlsincsrq.org/eureka or email Jessie Wingar at Jessie@girlsincsrq.org or (941) 366-6646. 

Photo courtesy of Girls Inc.