Through a partnership with Castleberry ISD, Girls Inc. of Tarrant County (GITC) offers daily hands-on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) programs at A.V. Cato Elementary which have inspired some of our participants in incredible ways!

Meet Amirah and Mia, both girls started attending Ms. Giselle Gonzalez’ STEM program at their school last year and loved it so much they chose to continue for a second year in a row! “It is very heartwarming to see some of my same students coming back every year, because it shows they enjoy being in my class. They are willing to put in the work in their other classes just to have the opportunity to come to me,” says Gonzalez.

Fourth-grader Amirah shared her excitement about her Girls Inc. class saying, “It’s really fun, and I get to learn a lot of new things [since] in school I don’t really get to learn about engineering. My favorite activity was when we got to [brainstorm] to invent our own things we’d like to engineer, my friend and I came up with a Ferris wheel, a roller coaster, and a bubble car! Instead of [carbon emissions] bubbles come out of the car!”

“My favorite part about introducing participants into new STEM topics is just seeing their pure excitement to learn these new [things]. Then they go on and go tell their teachers or parents over what they are learning in class. It is important to me to teach them [various] topics in STEM because I want my girls to realize there [are] literally millions of opportunities in these fields,” says Gonzalez.

According to the Institution of Engineering and Technology, there are currently over one million women now in STEM occupations, but they still only account for 29% of the STEM workforce. Girls Inc. of Tarrant County is proud to be working towards closing the gap in the STEM workforce through these STEM specific programs!

Fifth-grader, Mia, is so invested in her class that, after speaking to her parents about it, they agreed that Mia should continue to pursue her passion and apply for enrollment at a STEM focused middle school. “I like STEM a lot and want to expand my knowledge of it. With Ms. G’s class I became really interested in [it],” Mia said excitedly. Gonzalez knows that through the girls are young, opportunities like this are important, “This opens their minds to thinking of [what] they have to study, and [what fields] they can work in when they grow up making them understand women are needed in these fields and can also make a huge impact.