Project Exploration’s Girls’ Program Benefits From Girl’s Opportunity Alliance Support

Project Exploration’s Sisters4Science Program provides access to the STEM education to young girls on the South and West sides. PHOTO PROVIDED BY PROJECT EXPLORATION.
Project Exploration’s Sisters4Science Program provides access to the STEM education to young girls on the South and West sides. PHOTO PROVIDED BY PROJECT EXPLORATION.

Project Exploration’s Girls’ Program Benefits From Girl’s Opportunity Alliance Support

By Tia Carol Jones

Project Exploration began its Sisters4Science Design Lab 25 years ago to provide access to STEM education to girls, because the organization understood the importance of exposing girls who live in urban areas to STEM education.

Project Exploration is one of 11 Chicago-based organizations to receive support as part of the Obama Foundation’s Girl’s Opportunity Alliance.

Project Exploration was founded in 1999 as a way to ensure young people on the South and West sides had access to high quality STEM education, with a focus on girls and minority young people. The program puts those young people in front of working scientists and engineers and exposes them to STEM with a hands-on approach.

Natasha Smith-Walker, Executive Director of Project Exploration, said that when girls receive access to STEM education in middle school and high school, it can help them become interested in STEM careers and set them up for success in STEM throughout their academic journey.

Smith talked about one student, Arlene, who participates with Project Exploration through her school and in the summer with their place-based learning. While on the surface she might not seem to be interested in the program, the staff learned that she really does love being in the program and the way the staff accepts her for who she is.

“I think for us, being able to really allow a young person to be who they really are, to be accepted, and to also grow and learn and want to be participatory, that’s really important to us,” Smith-Walker said. With the focus on STEM, Project Exploration exposes the students to dissections, building robots and learning coding, as well as building model homes with working water and electricity sources.

Not only does Project Exploration work with the young people, they also engage the parents. Smith-Walker said that with Project Exploration’s first STEM learning center on the West side in 2017, the organization wanted to help the parents understand how the program would prepare the students for careers in STEM.

She said parents now have a much better understanding of the value of a STEM education. During COVID-19, Project Exploration saw their participation increase by 300% because the programming was happening with the families involved, with parents working alongside their students on projects. Smith-Walker said there is nothing more interesting then to see the reaction of students when they are excited about the projects they are doing and the pride the students have in their work.

Smith-Walker said that being involved with the Girl’s Opportunity Alliance provides a network of other organizations that are focused on programs for girls, which can lead to collaboration. During the summer, Smith-Walker was able to use that network to seek out other programs for the girls who participated in Project Exploration that they could take advantage of, as a way to supplement what they were doing with the organization.

“You can have all the girls-serving organizations that you know are doing incredible work with young people that can help benefit our programming. We’re focused on the STEM, but oftentimes, we’re looking for the mentorship opportunities and/or social emotional learning or physical activities. So, this has been a nice blessing to have this kind of partnership,” Smith-Walker said.

For more information about Project Exploration, visit www.projectexploration.org.

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