You're Invited
... to a presentation of what happened when Ms. DeHart invited a group of students on a STEM journey!
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Mission
The STEM Impressionists program (SIP) was created to ensure that underrepresented students, especially Black and Brown girls, received sustained mentoring so that they can successfully engage in continuously dynamic, participatory activities that developed their STEM, leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
The SIP experience is driven by hands-on, student produced STEM activities. Cohort members design project-based curriculum intended to engage the student’s 21st-century career-related STEM and professional skills: computer science, robotics, coding, teamwork, collaboration, presentation, and more!
SIP members are community educators. Their experiences include producing seminars, sponsoring competitions, and hosting hackathons. They also extend to their own learning via seminars, classes, and guest speakers.
Cohort members empower themselves and collaborate with one another, as well as industry changemakers, to make a positive, long-lasting impact within the STEM field and beyond.
SIP is a future-oriented organization, preparing cohort members for a lifelong journey of changemaking using their STEM expertise to impact the world.
Purposeful community service is at the heart of SIP’s practice. We believe in William Glasser’s theory “you learn 95% of what you teach others.” By helping others succeed in STEM we create an win-win atmosphere; the students we serve learn skills they can use to start/develop their STEM journey and SIP members use their multifaceted skills to create a useful resume, and express their humanity by “paying it forward” for others.
Cohort members delight in sharing their passion for addressing the issues associated with the equity, inclusion, and the leaky STEM pipeline. If our skills can help you develop your STEM program, please contact us! We would love to be a guest speaker at your next event!
SIP fosters long-term relationships as the solution to the problem of ensuring that more minority talent is being developed and prepared for careers in STEM.
We believe that the outreach for girls in STEM needs start in middle school and continue until they receive their Masters degree (MS2MS)!
SIP is a networking organization with a focus. Members will continue to impact the organization well into their respective careers by nurturing the connections built and carrying forward the SIP mission.
IMPACT
SIP is an intergenerational team (adults + students), focused on addressing the “leaky pipeline” in STEM with win-win solutions. The cornerstone of our program is to generate a plethora of real world experiences that translate into opportunities for SIP members and the participants of our community service activities. Our plan has been effective.
3
Cohorts
12 Mentees for 12 Years
25,000+
Views
LiveStream & Zoom
2,000+
In-Person Trainings
Community Service
STEM Trainings
STEM Trainings
42+
Awards
Team &
Individual
National & Local Awards
National & Local Awards
Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent, not a singular conception of ability. And at the heart of the challenge is to reconstitute our sense of ability and intelligence.
Sir Ken Robinson
Cohort Members
What is it like to be a member of the STEM Impressionists? It depends on who you ask! Each member has a unique story about what SIP means to them; how they became a member of the group; why they have stayed a member, and what “insider” story they can tell you that will make you laugh out loud!
Being a member of SIP is transformative.
Emanda
Lidya
Usra
Abia
Aya
Nardos
Mera
Tanisha
Pallab
STEM Experiences
It takes a village, working together towards a common purpose to create an atmosphere of success. The individual members of SIP create, as they participate in their self-selected hands-on STEM activities, the line items that appear on their resumes.
The intersectionality of our talents and focused commitment culminates in an intergenerational team supported by external partners that allows us to work together to forge a personalized STEM pathway for each member.
VEX Competitions
Ms. DeHart had spent the previous year being a First robotics coach. She was poised to bring First to her middle school when she found out that they had chosen VEX robotics instead. Her previous team, all but one, elected to join the soccer team and things were looking bleak. To no avail, Ms. DeHart asked a new set of students and ended up taking 17 + their parents to the VEX state competition! While the team did not earn the right to move on to Worlds, some of the students volunteered to go to Worlds, explore the experience, and prepare for the next year!
STEM INTO SPRING
This seminar was inspired by the Hour of Code activity facilitated by Mera Seifu and Yabesra Ewnetu. Happy with the engagement the students demonstrated SIP was invited to conduct a larger seminar – one in which the high school students were the program managers, middle school students were the STEM educators, and elementary school students enjoy the STEM program! This was one of our best activities. Lots of work but lots of value!
GMU FOCUS Camp
A teacher told a mutual friend about an article in George Mason University’s magazine. Ms. DeHart’s friend brought her the article about a forensic professor that had organized a STEM summer camp for minority girls; maybe she would be interested? Interested! YES! Ms. DeHart sent the instructor an email, invited them to met her students and they ended up in a partnership for 2+ years!
BRIGHT-CS is a program for girls in middle school. Girls learn how computer science can help them solve problems they care about and create new things in the digital world. Girls get to interact with women of color with careers in computer science and build friendships with other girls like them. By the end of the year, girls see themselves as leaders and scientists.
Hour Of Code
Coding is a 21st century skill. Whether you are a software engineer, or not, coding is everywhere and in someway shape or form affects a student’s career trajectory. Given that importance Ms. DeHart made it a priority to expose, teach coding in any way she could. Not knowing how to code herself, and having little time to learn, she was supported by students that offered peer-to-peer teaching.
The results were very positive: student-sponsored hackathons, coding curricula, robotics, seminars, a coding club, etc. The Hour of Code is a wonderful way to support students in coding.
Scratch Conference
The Scratch Conference is a gathering of educators, researchers, developers, and other members of the worldwide Scratch community. Our proposal was accepted into the conference and Abia Zahir and Aya Elfettahi were able to afford to attend the field trip. They presented to a group of teachers and got a chance to enjoy the extraordinary network opportunities that the conference offers. This trip required student contribution but was well worth the expense. In addition to the conference we were able to visit MIT’s and Harvard’s campuses!
SmartBrief Summit
Part of SIP’s program is for student to make public presentations. It exposes our program in addition to teaching students how to plan, write, practice, and present a speech to an audience of real people! Ms. DeHart would submit a proposal and invite students that were willing to participate in the process. This event was for teachers and administrators. Abia Zahir and Aya Elfettahi joined Ms. DeHart on their field trip. Our presentation went so well that we secured a presentation offer with an attending organization.
HACKSIP
HackSIP was a hackathon series created by Mera Seifu and Nardos Demilew. They, along with a skilled support team, put together an online hackathon for underrepresented middle and high school girls. Mailing the materials directly to their homes, students were exposed to coding through Scratch, micro:bit, and other hands-on activities. The seminar series was so well received that we might even do it again!
Cyber-AI
Cyber-Ai was a virtual seminar hosted during COVID by Aya Elfettahi and Lidya Demilew. They created an interactive seminar that exposed middle and high school girls to computing through two of the fastest growing fields in technology, Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity. The seminar included a cybersecurity professional guest speaker in addition to a number of “hands-on”, interactive activities.
Starting from Scratch
A chance meeting between two adults, from different countries, during a pandemic and inspired by a similar mission – to teach underrepresented students how to code – generated an opportunity for global connection! Our motto was No borders, just learning! Ten Scratch class and 10 youth mentors later students from New Delhi, India and the United States inspired students from India to attend coding classes Livestreamed on YouTube! 25,000 view later the project gifted SIP it first international student members: Pallab Layak and Tanisha Dhami
National Engineers Week
As a middle school teacher Ms. DeHart felt it important to expose and support girls to STEM. As part of her focus she partnered with FCCLA to serve a 3 course dinner while entertaining as many girls as possible for a NASA speaker that presented during National Engineering Week. The event was a success! Twenty-five girls attend and asked the speaker questions that truly indicated their interest in the opportunity!
Your Donations Make a Difference
Your generous donations allow us to fund 3 programs:
We know how competitive it is to earn scholarships that allow you to accept unpaid internships or having the funds to travel. Our scholarship it meant to be a bridge for students while that work on the line items that create the resume that leads them to their internship and/or school of choice.
Mx. DeHart was constantly helping us participate in STEM events. She drove her car, reached into her pocket, and many teachers – if they want to help their students, do the same thing. We want to help the teacher keep their funds AND support their students!
As we enter college we need to attend conferences, take classes that support our role as Non-Profit board members, and use our knowledge to create the lesson plans that will become the foundation of the college version of SIP. We have always worked on a very limited budget but this time we will need help supporting our continued efforts. We do not want to lose sight of paying it forward for others.
stay connected
Youth/Peer-2-Peer Guest Speakers
Bring one of our cohort members into your classroom or after-school program as a guest speaker with/without a hands-on activity.
STEM Teacher PD
Reach out if you are interested in bringing Ms. DeHart into your organization to lead a teacher professional development session.
Online STEM Resources
Send us a message if you want to become a STEM resource member. In addition to the free material that is available on our website you will have access to a large selection of STEM, coding, FACS and after-school activity lesson plans.