What you’ll hear in this episode:

• The importance of STEM education for women
• Increasing girls’ interest and engagement in STEM
• Making STEM accessible

Julie Shannan is the former deputy director for Girlstart, a nonprofit founded in 1997 focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education for women. They were one of the first in that particular nonprofit space and have been pioneers in advocating for the organization’s cause since. The origins of Girlstart come from the dot com bubble. The founder saw men with barely any training writing HTML code and making six-figure salaries and didn’t see women receiving that same opportunity. Today, they operate under the same mission of increasing girls’ interest and engagement in STEM with their main focus being elementary and middle school-aged girls.

Girlstart hosts summer camps where through an intensive STEM education program they foster the attendees’ STEM skills and interests. Over half of these programs come at no charge as a way to assist those who cannot afford them and to not leave anyone out due to circumstance. Their largest program is their year-round afterschool programs which take place in 98 schools across the country. The afterschool programs extend on what the girls are learning in their science class through hands-on activities. They also hold Girlstart conferences in two different Texas cities and host community STEM events. One of the biggest things that Girlstart focuses on is making everything accessible. Whether it’s demystifying chemistry or providing opportunities and activities to those who may not be able to afford it.

To hear more about all the great work Girlstart is doing with engaging and fostering young girls’ STEM education, how Shannan has helped build the nonprofit, and how they plan on explaining their efforts, tune into the seventh installment of Great Society. If you enjoy what you hear, be sure to share the episode with friends and colleagues.

Great Society is a founding_media podcast created in partnership with Constance Dykhuizen.

Host: Constance Dykhuizen

Guest: Julie Shannan

Find Girlstart on Twitter

 

Transcript:

this is a founding media podcast if or or hi everyone welcome the great society podcast I’m your host Constance thank yous and I’m here today with one of my oldest friends on the potter we’ve been friends for the longest time on the pod deletion and she’s the deputy director of girls start here in Austin Texas

welcome Julie hi Constance how are you I’m doing great thanks okay so when I was eighteen I was at UT I just moved in and I wanted to kind of change the world I was looking to get my hands and all kinds of things and right across the street from where I live was this little tiny was it pink house yes that writing house on campus and I saw that the girl star and I thought that maybe would be welcoming to me and so I walk in the door Martin your office and say that I would like to volunteer yeah you walk in the door sit on my couch and you’re like what’s this what are you doing I want your job from day and here we are but my question for you my first question is am I the best volunteer you’ve ever had no no no course you are and know what you know what I loved about that day was that you were curious which is something that we teach our girl star is to be brave creative and curious in you and compass all three things ray if you walked into a space you didn’t know anyone you didn’t know what was going on but if that girl and then probably you thought it was probably empowering for girls and you were curious about not only what also does but my job but you’re already thinking about that and then creative obviously everything you do is create it but thank you for coming and being brave enough to fit my office and basically just say what can I do to help you yes our great volunteers when a volunteer walks in and wants us to do what they want to do it’s harder to make a space for them but when the volunteers really open to whatever it is that we need help with and you really were open to just having I think I like to data entry it still I can tell that that was a levy eating a lot of your work and that you had a lot going on so it’s still rewarding for me and I got to learn from you and still be friends you for all this time so I worked out in my basement and

so can you tell me a little bit more about girl starting that was years ago I won’t say how many but where are you now school starts a little bit more about what you do circle star was founded in ninety seven and so we’re twenty two years into this work and we are one of the few nonprofits focused on girls in stem science technology engineering and math you guys really got to that’s what I am hearing organizations young people when we would say stem we’re doing stem education and they were like stem cell research for girls safe and I was just like okay well obviously the acronym has been caught on I feel like now it has where people know about it but I’m still describing what’s Dennis but yeah we were one of the pioneers specially so that was in Austin in two thousand one probably two thousand two thousand one not to give that away and it was fine and that was when that you know big dot com Dan what’s happening here in town and everyone was you know basically they had a ton of jobs for people that could program in HTML not like archaic language and I’m the only people that knew about that were the guys that learn that in their mom’s basement right like though that was the typical guy job and they were white and so these companies that were all popping up doing fantastic throwing making a car bonuses and all these ridiculous parties they they really looked around and saw that they had no women and definitely no diversity in several Star our founder Rachel me are found a girl start when her friends were her guy friends were getting these you know six figure jobs with barely knowing what they were doing they were being taught on the spot and no women knew about this and that was basically a bro culture so she started girl start to big break dot trend and companies finally started paying attention to us and realize they did need diversity and diversity mattered so girls start has been doing this work really specifically for elementary middle middle and school girls fourth through eighth grade and we are very focused on making stem fun and making their experience is that girls have really fun a lot of my experiences living biology and N. as science all came from well in my life that made it really interesting and fun

what made you kind of attracted to science and you have a biology degree IT so your background is in science but what made you want to go into that when it kind of as you said it’s been seen as more of a kind of a stereotypically male dominant male dominated environment so I had a nominee teacher in high school misty no fan and she was such a cool teacher she basically I’m Lena got rid of the book and got us you know to really exploring outside and anatomy is one of those things there’s a lot to learn with I. sections and stuff and she made it really fun she taught me that being brave could be rewarded I’m even if you didn’t know the right answer so one of the things she would do would you know the night before we always had a little bit of reading to do and the next day she would I ask you a question and have everyone who you know thought they knew the answer raise their hand and then she would have these plastic wake find bugs and treats and prizes and she would throw you a price before you even said what your answer was so anyone standing raising their hand had a price for even just being brave enough to like try which is you know one of the things that we when I got to roasters like we need to reward bravery is something that a lot of times girls like to be right before the answer and what I see with voices they’re like oh that’s the answer and they don’t know their nine they don’t know the answer but they’re but they’re fearless and so teaching girls that it’s okay to be to you know be brave enough to to have an answer even if it’s wrong to you know take that risk and I’m there’s not a lot there’s not consequence to that it just helps you get better I love that because it feels like the world rewards bravery and not necessarily being right like entrepreneurship you know a lot of people fail restaurants a lot of people fail it seems like you’re rewarding the right thing early on in people’s lives especially people are kind of left out of that getting rewarded for bravery and love that and

one of the things that girl started is we don’t have like there’s a lot of times where you know in in school kids are rewarded for the right answer and a lot of times Eckel start they’re making like prototypes through their building sustainable cities out of legos or and they come up with some really crazy stuff yeah and so it’s not you know it’s not it won’t work right but it’s not our job to say oh that’s ridiculous that will never work because maybe it will one day and maybe that idea will help them cultivate new ideas yeah I’m kind of like getting back to yeah I mean like the world rewards that like prototype one version one beta like all that stuff is so rewarding kind of in corporate America but I took I guess you’re right we don’t really talk about that a lot as a kid it’s always like right wrong yes no kind of a binary response to kids in like and how we evaluate them so really like an instill kids are learning math and science and engineering and physics all separately like they’re still going to separate classes and they’re all integrated ran so one of the things that we teach a girl star is that these things are all super connected

so tell me about your programs would you offer to young women and girls how did they when they come in through your door is kind of what is their experience so we have year round programming and for girls we do summer camps during the summer and as our weeklong day camps over half of our camps are at no charge and in communities that are high need and then because we do have our headquarters is here in Austin and we do have paid camps for families that can afford but they’re still lake three hundred and twenty five dollars it’s still very affordable and then we have after school programs and that is our largest program it’s year round in schools we have over ninety five about ninety eight maybe after school programs and those are one you know once a week at the school and it extends what girls are learning in their science class so they’re not just going to science class but they’re doing a hands on activity that has to do what what they’re learning and then and we have a cross conference in April and we also do that in Houston as well that’ll be in the fall and we do like community stem like community events where they’re kind of like festivals for families to bring their whole family they’re not gonna leave their boys at home range and had also we welcome boys and girls and they do you know hands on lake interactive wake booth kind of like a little like fair yeah I remember that even when I started in two thousand and one as you said coming across I just love so many of the activities like you have you had filmmaking in two thousand one you had animation you had all these things that seemed even for me as like a volunteer or somebody that was older than a lot of the girls here like it all seems kind of scary and accessible to me so I love that you’re introducing young girls to to those things that a lot of us still for adults are terrified of like I couldn’t imagine going on programming

can you tell me like some of the things on your website us I was like how to build a compass like how to do different things can you tell me about how you make it fine or how you make it relevant to to use so we also have a program called December which is thirty one days the stem and when you when you mention how to build a campus we do like activities like that every day and it’s like a calendar virtual calendar that opens up an activity like that every day so cool it is cool and you know I think part of it is listening to what kids are into slime is a really big deal right now kids really want it they want to you know they want the science that you get dirty and it’s you know kind of like this you know aha factor that but we also look for free three things that they can find in their pantry or maybe things that they can find outside that they that’s not gonna be it you know expensive so there’s not a huge barrier for families to go you know to do the system that we’re providing but it is hands on Wednesday activities which is probably some of the things you saw we also try to show that you know just because you’re doing chemistry doesn’t mean you have to you know science or whatever you don’t have to wear a lab coat right it’s not just this kind of like nerd mentality this geek mentality girls are not attracted to you now it’s turning a lot of girls off there are some girls that are like I’m a science geek in there they don’t eat on my own it and they own and they’re fine but the girls that are not using stem need to have a safe place where they don’t have to identify themselves as a geek or nerd and did they can their ideas can be appreciated without that stigma attached to it that you know unfortunately even when many companies are attaching themselves to the geek thing in the nerd thing and it’s turning still turning girls officer listening to culture listening to what girls are into and helping them kind of like want to choose that because even a lot of fourth graders are choosing what they want to do their parents aren’t the decider whereas when I was in fourth grade I did what my parents wanted me to do right but now the kids are kind of making those decisions so we have to really our marketing efforts on our branding has to appeal to those fourth through eighth graders yeah I think that we have to stay on top of what they’re into

what advice would you have for parents that want their kids boys or girls to be involved in stem like how would you say they should go about it that’s a great question I get asked that all the time and one thing I would say is Tinker with your kids you know when the curling iron breaks or the toaster oven breaks or something just take it apart and let kids feed that this there’s not a lot of parts there it’s not that I’m scary and things can you know they can be part of the the you know the solution for that and they can think of ways to fix that another way is to be curious about their world so instead it like a lot of kids are using their devices but it may not be creating stuff like absent because creating like you know different things on technology but they can and there’s a ton of free tools out there that they could make their own up so you know it’s it’s super easy but then they start to become interested and not just using the technology to creating the technology I one of the things I hear girls they all the time is hi these computers are so stupid and they are because the people that are coating them and telling them what to do you have to tell them exactly what to do they don’t think on their own and so when a girl or boy learns that they get to tell the computers what to do they become empowered

so you guys have been doing this kind of a long time you’re a pioneer girl start was in this movement have things gotten better for girls in stem intact like do you have you seen a big improvement or absolutely I think probably in the last ten years maybe even like five companies now are paying attention because you know it’s so transparent now why it you know not only like what their numbers look like with diversity but you know I you know making sure like inclusion as a part of it right now everyone has access and so we get a lot of companies that want to you not only subpoena support girls start but also get employees engaged because their police are asking for meaningful things that they care about and diversity inclusion is the number one reason why companies support S. because they’re still dealing with a very male dominated work force and there’s a lot of studies that have shown that diversity not just gender diversity by all kinds of diversity really makes for a stronger company and makes for better ideas better teams and so they that’s one of the reasons why companies are starting to pay attention and talk about it but I think the not exploding you know people having access and seeing that you know there are opportunities for and also you know easier to get that the training it’s not kind of like this like locked down like gated you know citing the secret yeah like you know coding there’s free tools out there for everyone to learn General Assembly it’s got you know there’s so many opportunities that kids and adults can can go into the stores and it’s not just a bro kind of like culture that may keep it tight more

so your role as as deputy director you do a lot of development and fundraising I could you talk to me a little bit about what you offer to companies and how how girls integral system is really exciting to the companies that you’re partnering with so there’s a lot of reasons why people want to give money there’s a lot of reasons that we have to be honest with each other the funder and the fundraiser you know are we able to meet your expectations just like a relationship right so I am I think you know I I there’s a company in town that they’re like okay we’re going to find you for ten years and in ten years your girls will be old enough to work for us that will be able to track that and I’m like okay that’s not happening or not that’s not our number one goal is to feed into your company yeah that that if you want to support what everything that we’re doing twenty eight thousand girls a year all of the work we’re doing and not just in central Texas but in Houston Dallas and the bay in Boston and growing get on our bus and help us do more and like managing their expectations as been the number one thing like to keep them happy and they’re still they’re still giving fifty thousand dollars a year for ten years so that didn’t change their white guest it just change their expectations so that we are we’re all showing up and doing what we can do right yeah I’m I would say one of my favorite things about fundraising is helping companies align their giving whether they are you know kind of what their overall like values our values are for their company right so if you know a lot of companies that didn’t have you know maybe a strategy are now looking at being more strategic with their gaming so that they’re not just talking about wanting more women in stem or more women at their company but they’re investing in the pipeline which is you know starting younger

what are some tools are what do you think is kind of hot right now in fundraising or like what are things that are working these days that maybe have changed in the last couple of decades of this work for girls start hot in fundraising okay great I’m trying to make things easier I love fundraising wanted that you’re so good at it so well it helps you say I’m good at it I didn’t start off as a fundraiser in a lot of there’s no like there wasn’t there is now I guess but there wasn’t like a degree you get in fundraising and a lot of people ended up and you know non profits or development offices and basically had to be trained on you know the spot but fundraising for me is about building relationships and listening to what your donors want and providing them access to not only the work that you’re doing but the leadership so I’ll give an example one of the the trends one of the things I’m working on is our legacy society which is basically the largest gift that anyone will make in their lifetime is probably the gift that they leave in their well and it’s hard to talk to people about what is that kind of a I thought it would be really hard to talk to people about the end of life right but one when you talk to them about when you show them the opportunity that they can make without biggest guest I’ll give you I’ll tell you a story one of our legacy society members SO we call people that are have told us we don’t even know the people that haven’t told us that they named us in there well but I’m one of my corporate donors is a legacy society member and I meet with her once a year we talked about the corporate gift and it’s about twenty five thousand dollars a year and we were talking and she’s like okay okay okay can we wrap this up and I was like sure just like you we’ve got the donation it’s good we’re happy everyone’s super happy it’ll start now I want to tell you what me and my husband decided and I’m sitting there in a meeting that was originally about this corporate donation suddenly made a chef to where she sighed so we have one son we have my husband I have decided that we are giving him a third and he’s taking at third and I’m taking a third to give to our favorite charities and your my charity Tommy’s and she is a V. P. at this corporation now and that’s the national she’s got promoted to national V. P. so she made out of Austin but it’s probably going to be a six figure gaffes and this is gonna be so humbling like and I was expecting it and I was crying and I’m just like exactly and I don’t want her to die right but it but use it in something greater and again like that’s what I really like about the fundraising space number being inflamed to be as if you’re inviting people into things that they actually want to do that maybe they’ve been working hard in corporate America and they want to you know make that meaning fault and of their life if it you know we’re just kind of adds value onto the and so it’s not really clear that the the thing that I see it like people talking about more and as here is still really popular you can raise a lot of money when one person asked their friends to help our our cynical I can’t campaign which starts April second is raises about sixty thousand dollars just people asking their friends to help give a scholarship money so and those are trends I mean also the thing that will never go away is that personal one on one can you know get it off the hill and the Congolese take time but they’re so important yeah as a funder like you’re not one of our founders but I know that you meet with a ton of charities and you give out it takes the time to do that it’s an exchange of ideas you’ve got to get to know each other and like what you said about it being it’s coming I think it’s like speed dating or something like when you’re going around and trying to make sure that your values align the are going to get along that there’s no surprises right along there and that they trust you and that they don’t you know they’re they’re happy about how you’re spending their money right I also when I tell a donor and then I’m wanted you know how coffee with them I’m really clear that this is about their yearly cafeteria so that tricks the no I’m not I’m like Hey they want to find out if we want their money it’s not a secret and I’ve had people yelling like Julie I’m too busy for coffee but the checks in the mail like right now I’m writing it but that honesty is going to feel great like all rushing to save the coffee but I really do want that one on one time because I really do want to update them on the growth that they’re letting us do for their gift

I feel like there’s only a few of us maybe who have been in the nonprofit space like our whole career what keeps you in non profits probably you know when one of the big secrets of nonprofits is how innovative you get to be it’s very much like your ID because you’re just trying different things in your do you have to change with the times and so there’s a lot of room to be creative and like your ideas you know do you get to the right does happen so that I well I think I have really great ideas I tell my staff lake if you tell me I have a great idea that like that is like my number one love language your great ideas to like you know that but that is like seeing my ideas become a reality it has it’s just my I know that that’s my motivating factor money is not I could get paid double what I’m getting paid I’ve been offered really great higher salary jobs basically fundraising and not having any say and the branch or how we can be creative with our fundraising just kind of like basically turning it out you know churning out the money and I’ve turned him down because I know my I know what my motivating factor is in that being able to be in the creative space of fundraising and not just I don’t really have a lot of saying the girls start programs anymore because we have a fantastic staff but I do get to what we do with fundraising I do get to help with that yeah and

so it do you have any advice for people who are looking to get into the nonprofit space like I said there’s two of us that are kind of life on people if like I I talk to people they’re trying to come into it from like I’ve worked a long time I want to get into nonprofits like do you still recommend people go that like straight nonprofit route from like studied undergrad or things like that you know I think there’s nothing like experience even with school right even if you study it nothing like I think finding someone diets will sit with you and maybe help you job shadow or kiss you there’s a lot of people that volunteer that really get stuck with really crappy jobs right and they never get and I’ve been one of those volunteers I was at people’s community clinic taking urine samples and there’s nothing morally crest the not so they didn’t show me the fundraising side they didn’t show you know they didn’t really take the time to figure out what it is I wanted but if you find a small nonprofit and talk to the right person and ask them if there’s something that day you could help them with that they’re working on is that what you want them to work on I think that’s probably the best way and then I mean entry level is if you really want to go and from the ground up finding a nonprofit that is growing because there’s a lot nonprofits that just kind of stay small so finding a nonprofit that has the potential and maybe they’re either or they’re part of a national you know you know kind of branch or something yeah so what’s next for all star we all have cook and well so while we have a lot going on so we just opened a Houston office two years ago we have a North Texas office we opened up just recently and we’re growing our councils in those areas and then Boston and the bay area are happening as well and so we’re fundraising on national our platform now and our next goal is to have a national PR campaign they were interviewing companies right now that will help us do that and so yeah we’ve just launched the growing Harmon campaign which is basically it’s starting off as a T. shirt campaign we have the T. shirt I did have a layer it people love it when I went to it’s great it’s it’s fun if we have them from infants to adults sizes and all kind and what is it say it says this T. empowers the girl and I meant to wear it I didn’t know how does that empower girls so I had the pleasure of the proceeds go at it’s a hundred dollars and hundred percent of the proceeds go to help one girl have free stem supplies for one year and after school program and we’re reaching twenty seven hundred girls and after school so everyone of our after school girls is attending at no cost at her school work the schools are not paying so we’re providing all of that for free and that is one way to help offset those costs but also allow someone to share that story Facebook is helped us with them pro bono advertising with that and they’re continuing somewhere yeah this is I’m hoping to have a national PR campaigns to keep tuned to see how lake and a PR campaign may be able to amplify that message so when you when you’re doing traditional fundraising I think you’re still thinking in terms of marketing PR Li getting out there like it’s really about getting eyes on the brand is that yeah I am it’s not it’s not just about your brand and your reputation which is so important out grocer has a great reputation but it’s also about the metrics because one of the things that people want to see is okay tell me like truly is this are y’all really moving the needle and stem education is you know the our ally on this and that’s what I’m going to give you really making a difference or is it just a feel good and so we’re in addition to fundraising Ross they’re measuring the impact that the girls that young girl starts having the girls in our program and we have a couple of reports that are on our website that show girls and girls started using pre AP classes in middle school at a higher rate and they’re also scoring higher at least in taxes on their science staar test so and I mean as good as like ten points and so that’s crazy when you think of the girls that they don’t have girls start and so trying to show the metrics and also trying to raise more money to do more

do you have a story of maybe an individual girl a student who’s gone through your program anything how she’s been impacted by the working girl start either an after school program or camp yeah and we have a lot of girls that with a C. touch in touch with us we can share their stories one of my favorites is Audrey Locklear who currently works the same thing as a programmer came across on target as an artist wow and when she was just doing this beautiful anime are that was kind of like her net she was going to get our entree into yeah well she came to a code you should learn about coding she was able to make a video game with her artwork in the game and she was like okay I could do not only art but I can do the programming and make tons more money and so that shifted her idea of what she could do you and she can still use art and what she’s doing so I love actually here I heard you say that you wanted to be valued for ideas kind of early in your career it’s like that’s kind of that gift you’re passing on to young women and girls is you’re gonna be valued for ideas like somebody cares about what what you are thinking what you’re feeling right now yeah and you and look at these other options maybe you haven’t considered Audrey’s mom wrote it as an email and that both of her girls wanted to stand because the girls start me yeah that says there are there are yearly donors and that’s another thing when you talk to their family you have an opportunity to have them help you impact more so when I look at fundraising I’m asking families that have made an impact that we mean impact in their lives if we can have their support to make more three

so this is my last question is the question I ask everybody and it’s individualized and personalized for everybody but how do you define success for yourself on our girl starter even personally as a fundraiser or is a director of an organization how do you think about success in measuring yourself that’s a great question concert I want only the best answer you that you have for that question for me it’s am I doing better than I was last year am I doing are my ideas fresh and new I tell my team all the time and that it’s easy to do the same thing that we did last year it’s easy to do the same campaign or keep doing it but even though it’s harder to come up with a new fresh idea around marketing or fundraising or branding we have to to stay relevant and it’s worth it so people know that I’m not going to do something because it’s easy that it hard but worth it to come up with new and fresh ideas that’s what I love about you is because I mean again we went back two thousand and one when we started this journey together still doing the same thing I would not be happy yeah I mean my job has changed what girl start looks like is changing and it just seems like an invading it’s just a huge part of your DNA as a person but then also you kind of interviews that integral startups really exciting what’s your answer to that gosh well

I think some of this rain water Richards rainwater I think for me measuring success I think it’s something similar just like in my meeting new people in my getting perspectives that are different from mine I love getting to interview people whether that be I don’t know like students on the ground in Rwanda talking about their scholarship they’re getting more talking a nonprofit leaders here in Austin I just love hearing from other people’s perspective and kind of checking myself in like is my work impactful as my work meaningful it informed by peoples real lived experiences because I think that’s something I see sometimes missing a little bit in the marketing space for the fundraising space which is kind of a desire to push and push or to get that get those get that money get those games you’re talking about but to not necessarily have to be informed by the people they are impacted and that’s why I really like your work and what you although I’m sure it’ll now they can see three things right there I think more than ever people are looking for authentic not just authentic programs the authentic fundraising in tech stories yeah I think that that is a big part of what makes you successful thank you for being here today thanks for having spare time really appreciate it thanks so much to Richard rainwater for keeping us hydrated today we really appreciate it and think it along center for having us in your beautiful space this is been the great society podcast thank you very much for joining the great society team includes me concentrate cues and producer Raghav set an audio engineer Jake Wallace thank you to everyone it sounding media for your support thanks for listening