Black Girls Do STEM (BGDSTEM) is a nonprofit created to ignite curiosity and confidence in the academic disciplines by giving students the opportunities to thrive. Founded by Cynthia Chapple in 2019, the organization offers students in St Louis, Missouri a community space alongside the support to explore their educational interests. “As much as we care about skills, we also care about social development,” Chapple, who is a chemist by training, says. It is a deeply personal mission for her, the chief executive explains. “Throughout education and career, I have primarily been the sole Black woman in many spaces, and that is a very isolating feeling. Confidence is a significant barrier for Black and Latino youth. We’re helping them to see that you belong in this space, you can learn, and you can build that resilience.” The students’ research projects include social justice components which intersect with the planet, such as utilizing environmental mapping to examine the unequal impacts of poor air quality – part of the nonprofit’s mission to help students “leverage science for the public good”.
BGDSTEM youth group photo at the Saint Louis Zoo field trip 2024. Source: BGDSTEM.
The organization, which offers a multiyear program, includes five full-time staffers and six part-time employees who deliver the curriculum. More than 100 girls are enrolled in its middle school STEM Saturday Academy, which offers tutoring, research, shadowing, and internships. It has over 30 high school students enrolled in its Empowerment, Preparation and Placement (EPP) program, which is less structured and involves year-long projects. 80% of the students come from target socioeconomic districts, the founder explains. Students consistently rate their confidence as having grown by the end of the term, and in both this and last year’s graduating classes, eight out of 11 students headed to college to pursue STEM degrees. Chapple stresses that increasing the participation of Black women in the field is vital: “As Dr Beverly Wright, founder of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, said: ‘The time to bite the hand that feeds you is when it’s feeding you poison.’ If we are the people in the communities that are being fed poison, we have to be able to recognize that. You can’t advocate if you don’t understand.”
Photo of BGDSTEM youth and staff at Cardinal Health company during a field trip where youth 3D printed and designed a handheld gaming console. Source: BGDSTEM.