STEM for all
Rishi Srinivasan â23 always knew that when he grew up, he wanted to be a doctor. After he began volunteering for Big Brothers Big Sisters, he wondered why the children he was paired with didnât aspire to STEM careers like he did when he was their age.
The answer, he found, came down to two things: exposure and mentorship.
Rishi Srinivasan â23, co-founder of the STEM For All Academy
During his junior year at Boston College, Srinivasan and his brother Rohit, and their friends Colin Knutson and Joey Marsello founded the STEM For All Academy, a nonprofit that teaches an âinspirational and memorableâ curriculum to children grades K through 12, with a heavy focus on ages 10 through 15. Headquartered in Boston, STEM For All Academy serves over 500 children from disadvantaged communities in Boston and New York.
âWhen we began designing a curriculum,â said Srinivasan, âour goal was to show the coolest topics in scienceââconcepts that were applicable and interesting.
But that wasnât always the case, especially for the first cohort of students when the co-founders brought their program to one of the Boston neighborhood schools.
âWhen we started at our first school, none of the students wanted to be there. Many of them were forced to stay after school because their parents couldnât pick them up until later. Initially, the first group of kids we had were a little hard to manage, but one by one, a spark formed.
âI remember one student in particular who was very uninterested. But then our cardiology lesson came, and he was completely silent throughout the whole thing. He asked so many questions, and he wasnât usually one to participate. At the very end he said, âI want to be a cardiologist.â It was the coolest thing ever.â
Woods College Director of Corporate Engagement Mike Heaney (Lee Pellegrini)
STEM For All Academyâs mission is all about accessibility. It is an entirely free after-school option for parents; schools that want to participate in the program are only asked to provide the cost for expenses such as course supplies and materials. Courses are taught by undergraduate and graduate students, many from Boston College and other Boston area colleges and universities.
The STEM For All co-founders believe that a students-teaching-students approach inspires a passion for understanding and learning the course material, while also increasing their engagement and confidence throughout the curriculum.
âCost is definitely the biggest barrier for a lot of people to access STEM. If you donât have the exposure or wealth to join these immersion programs, itâs really hard to find STEM. Our goal is to make it as accessible as possible,â said Srinivasan.
Michael Heaney, director of corporate engagement and an adjunct professor at the Woods College of Advancing Studies, became a STEM For All Academy advisory board member last November. Heaney describes his responsibilities as âvery fun and fluid. Ěý
âWhen Rishi and his fellow co-founders asked if I wanted to be involved as an advisor, it took me about five seconds to think about it. I said, âSign me up.â I was so inspired by the way these young people saw a huge need and found a way to fill it. Even in their post-graduate years, these people are setting the world aflame. They are exactly what it means to be men and women for others.â
When Heaney first accepted the role, he assumed one of his chief responsibilities would be to ensure that these young adults not overcommit themselves amid the busy lives they lead outside of the nonprofit. That proved not to be the case.
âI come home and drink coffee so that Iâm ready for our 9:30 p.m. board calls and by 10:30 I canât go to sleepânot from the caffeine, but because Iâm so inspired by what theyâre doing. I catch myself laughing sometimes, thinking, âIâm not here to caution them and tell them to put on the brakes anymore. Iâm on board with go, go, go.â Because what theyâre doing is so amazing.â
Looking to the future, Srinivasan hopes to continue growing and improving STEM For Allâs accessibility through one-on-one services that are being piloted right now. On February 22, STEM For All Academy will host its first annual gala at the Kimpton Marlowe Hotel in Cambridge, featuring guest speakers Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler Ph.D. â12 and Harvard Medical School Professor David Sinclair. Ten-year-old Sean Atitsogbeâknown as âSean the Science Kid,â according to Srinivasanâwill receive this yearâs STEM For All Youth STEM Leader Award.
For more information on STEM For All Academy, seeĚýĚý