Central/MetroWest—Girls Inc. of Worcester and South Middlesex Opportunity Council (SMOC) have partnered together to engage up to 150 under-resourced girls in grades 6-12 from the Framingham area in multi-year STEM and Leadership programming starting in the summer of 2021.
For more than 10 years, Girls Inc. of Worcester has delivered research-based, hands-on, STEM-focused, college and career readiness curriculum through its signature Eureka! program. Over a 5-year span, girls are offered more than 1000 hours of life-changing STEM education and career exploration experiences, life skills development workshops, and health/wellness activities. This year, Girls Inc. introduced a new Eureka! Junior Varsity (JV) component to start our STEM pipeline even earlier, for 6th and 7th grade participants.
SMOC, whose mission is to improve the quality of life of low-income and disadvantaged individuals and families, reached out to Girls Inc. of Worcester earlier this year to explore opportunities to fill the gap in services for girls ages 12-18 in the Framingham area. “We are delighted to begin this important partnership with Girls, Inc. to expand access to critically important STEM programming for young women in the Framingham area,” SMOC’s Chief Program Officer and incoming CEO Susan Gentili said. “This innovative, hands-on experience will open up a new world of exciting possibilities for future careers that have been traditionally dominated by men. We look forward to helping change that dynamic by encouraging young girls to further explore their interests in science, math and technology in this.”
Girls Inc. will begin building up new after school cohorts of Eureka! and Eureka! JV that are scheduled to begin this fall at SMOC’s Framingham Community and Cultural Center.
With 100% of past Eureka! graduates going on to post-secondary education/training and more than 60% pursuing STEM-related fields, Girls Inc. of Worcester and SMOC are excited to see the outcomes of this new partnership. Supporting this new partnership and program expansion is the Women’s Foundation of Boston. They recently awarded Girls Inc. of Worcester an inaugural grant of $250,000 to be distributed over the next 5 years.
“We are thrilled to be expanding into Framingham and are honored by the warm welcome from SMOC and its partners.”- Victoria Waterman, CEO Girls Inc. of Worcester.
