COVID-19 shines a light on the disparity in underserved communities -- Students 2 Science reminds us the opportunity to change the trajectory for students' futures is now
Student 2 Science has a virtual program that inspires, motivates, and educates students to pursue STEM careers and compete in a global economy. This fall the achievement gap will look like a chasm and S2S is ready to help.
EAST HANOVER, N.J., June 24, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- For the past 10 years, Students 2 Science (S2S) has been a trusted authority in STEM education. S2S aims to inspire, motivate, and educate the nation's future STEM leaders by closing education, access, and opportunity gaps. They developed a comprehensive district-wide STEM solution for underserved communities and worked with over 30 school districts in New Jersey to provide opportunities for more than 87,000 students. Students 2 Science has set an ambitious goal of empowering 1 million students per year in underserved and socio-economically disadvantaged communities with great STEM education.
Education and equity in STEM changes lives, communities, and our ability to compete globally. There is a need to fill over 3.5 million STEM jobs by 2025. Students 2 Science is a model program with demonstrated success in meeting the needs of the public and private sectors. They have collaborated with businesses, institutions of higher education, school district leadership, and workforce-readiness agencies to increase workforce diversity in STEM and to provide STEM education.
"70% of high school students surveyed expressed interest in STEM. Our objective is to make career alternatives and their earning potential clear, so students continue on the path to receive STEM certificates and post-secondary degrees in STEM fields." Paul Winslow, President, and Co-Founder.
The impact of COVID-19 is being felt throughout communities across the nation, and it has had a significant impact on education. Students 2 Science is poised to meet the demand for virtual and digital learning and to fulfill the need for STEM education with its successful V-Lab (virtual lab) program. The V-Lab program provides students in grades 5-12 with hands-on STEM experiences via a digital platform. V-Labs are cost-efficient and easily scalable, and they were designed to overcome geographic and linguistic barriers. Working with over thirty school districts in NJ, PA, and NC they have developed solutions for the academic year 2020-2021 where S2S V-Labs provide learning in the classroom and at home.
Students 2 Science set a goal of raising $3.5 million to expand the V-Lab program, throughout New Jersey and globally, in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities in dire need of STEM education.
This year S2S was to hold its first-ever fundraising event S2S: The Salon championing the need for greater diversity and inclusion in STEM. Due to COVID-19 and the ongoing need for social distancing, S2S transitioned to a virtual event instead where over 400 have joined the event including leaders from the public and private sectors.
S2S virtually celebrated its 10th Anniversary and reaffirmed its commitment to empowering students with authentic STEM education. A recording of the S2S: The Salon event is available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE_KPCZEPZU&feature=youtu.be. It features success stories from students, like Grace and Nomase, who participated in S2S programs and is also a tribute to the importance of equity in STEM education, the guiding principle for the Students 2 Science journey over the next 10 years.
"Hearing from Grace and Nomase continues to inspire me that we need to do more and now. Their lives were changed as a result of the S2S programs and with increased donations, S2S is ready to motivate our next generation of STEM leaders." Karnel R Walker, Director, Global Business Management, Pharma Services at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Students 2 Science Advisory Board Member.
Students 2 Science also launched a GoFundMe fundraiser. Donations will support Students 2 Science as the organization pivots post-pandemic to scale the virtual labs program, remediate the gap in learning as a result of the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and provide for the challenging demands of new school requirements over the next 18 months.
About Students 2 Science
As a model program with demonstrated success in meeting the needs of the public and private sectors, Students 2 Science (S2S) aims to inspire, motivate, and educate the nation's future STEM leaders by closing education, access, and opportunity gaps. S2S's success is rooted in exemplary, hands-on science instruction at its commercial-grade laboratories that foster workforce readiness. S2S achieves this through cross-sector collaborations between district leadership, corporate partners, and institutions of higher education. The goal of S2S is to close the gap between education and New Jersey's and the nation's projected economic growth and global leadership. To learn more about Students 2 Science visit http://www.students2science.org/ or check them out on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Students2Science/.
Students 2 Science, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) model program in New Jersey that bridges the needs of the public and private sectors. Their mission is to inspire, motivate, and educate elementary, middle, and high school students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM subjects). They do so by providing an authentic, state-of-the-art laboratory experience complete with modern instrumentation and professional scientists. Additionally, they offer a remote, web-based virtual STEM experience that eliminates geographic and language constraints and broadens their reach to serve a wider audience. Teams of students, working collaboratively with scientific professionals who serve as role models, solve real-life problems while being introduced to a wide variety of 21st century STEM career opportunities.
SOURCE Students 2 Science
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