CAMPUS COLLABORATION CURRENT
FAC U LT Y N E WS
Building STEAM
A strategic partnership builds confidence and competence among local youth Written by Elaine Regus
TWICE A YEAR, SOME 20 HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS FROM
the surrounding communities spend eight days on the Harvey Mudd College campus learning computer coding and using what they learn to develop projects, like a gene-editing comb design or original music. The effort is a partnership between the College and STEAM:CODERS, a Pasadena-based non-profit dedicated to educating and inspiring youngsters from underrepresented and underserved families through science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM). The eight-week Saturday sessions in fall and summer are taught by HMC students and funded by various grants and endowments through the Office of Community Engagement to ensure that the program remains free for participants. Raymond Ealy, executive director, founded STEAM:CODERS in 2014 to introduce students to the STEAM disciplines and give them access to technology. Since then, more than 8,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade have participated in the program that offers a combination of hands-on activities, field trips and classroom instruction designed to spur imagination and innovation. The partnership between STEAM:CODERS and HMC began when Colleen Lewis, McGregor-Girand Associate Professor of Computer Science, joined the nonprofit’s board. Initially, HMC students traveled to Pasadena to teach the classes. Then, based on conversations with Gabriela Gamiz, director of community engagement, Lewis approached Ealy about offering the classes at Harvey Mudd. Since then, HMC has hosted the program on campus twice a year to serve students from the surrounding communities. “The thing that has been really magical about it is each time I’ve been able to hire students to both run and teach in the program,” Lewis says. “It’s been fantastic, and it’s been really exciting to me to just get out of the way and let students take ownership over this.”
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HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE
At first, the HMC program was open to anyone and attracted primarily young men. The few young women who did enroll seemed reluctant to speak up, voice their ideas and openly share their opinions. Gamiz says they noticed the limited participation of young women and wanted to address this and take action.” So, Gamiz and Lewis decided to limit it to young women only. A turning point came after Gamiz discussed her concerns with HMC sophomore Mary Celestin, who shared her experiences from Girl Scouts where she developed a program for elementary school girls to get involved in STEAM as part of her Gold Award project. Gamiz invited Celestin to teach one of the sessions. Celestin loved the flexibility of being able to develop her own curriculum. She was impressed by the impact STEAM:CODERS has had on thousands of kids in the Pasadena and Los Angeles areas and wanted to be part of that. “I really wanted to focus on introducing girls to the power of computer science not only as a career, but also as something that is a tool for any type of
“ I really wanted to focus
on introducing girls to the power of computer science not only as a career, but also as something that is a tool for any type of career or hobby that they're interested in.
”
–MARY CELESTIN ’21
