Photo Courtesy GirlstartA $100,000 grant from Google will fund a new program from Austin ISD and Girlstart to promote computer science education for girls, AISD announced Nov. 19.
About 100 fourth- and fifth-graders in Girlstart after-school programs at Northwest Austin and East Austin schools will be able to participate in the new science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, program, Girlstart Executive Director Tamara Hudgins said. She said the list of participating schools has not been finalized.
Founded in Austin, Girlstart brings STEM training to almost 12,000 girls a year, mostly in Central Texas, through its after-school and summer camp science programs.
"We focus on girls because 100 percent of girls are underserved in STEM," Hudgins said, noting that only about 25 percent of STEM jobs are occupied by women, and only one in seven engineers in the U.S. are women.
