As we culminate celebrating the achievements of women during Women’s History Month, Lockheed Martin is supporting the future social impact of women by striking new partnerships totaling $1.25 million with Girls Inc. and Million Girls Moonshot. These charitable donations recognize both the contributions of women in STEM and the important mission of cultivating girls and young women who will engineer a better future.
Research shows that less than a third of U.S. girls in Grade 12 demonstrate an interest in STEM. However, they are more likely to become confident in their STEM abilities and choose STEM careers if they have access to high quality learning experiences and roles models who can encourage and guide them along their journey. The work of Girls Inc. and Million Girls Moonshot will bolster that outcome.
Girls Inc.: Inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold
Lockheed Martin’s continued investment helps provide year-round after-school programming, weekend activities, and experiences that expand upon and support girls’ STEM learning and engagement, primarily in middle and high school years. Through hands-on activities, girls explore, ask questions, persist, and solve problems. By interacting with women and men in STEM careers, including dedicated Lockheed Martin volunteers, girls come to view these careers as exciting and realistic options for themselves and get to see to see how STEM makes the world a better place. In addition to investing in STEM education, Lockheed Martin recently supported Girls Inc. in developing tools that help caring adults working with youth to better understand the concepts of trauma and toxic stress and build skills to support young people experiencing stressors brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and any other ongoing difficulty or adversity.
Million Girls Moonshot: Seeking to re-imagine who can engineer
Million Girls Moonshot, an initiative of STEM Next Opportunity Fund, seeks to inspire and prepare the next generation of innovators by engaging one million more girls in STEM learning opportunities through afterschool and summer programs over the next five years. Million Girls Moonshot will not only grow an engineering mindset in girls but will also increase the quality of out-of-school STEM learning opportunities for all young people, particularly underserved and underrepresented youth. Lockheed Martin’s investment in Million Girls Moonshot will expand training, technical assistance, transformative program strategies, policy and advocacy efforts and evaluation across the 50 State Afterschool Networks. In turn, local programs will adopt practices that improve STEM program quality and increase access such as:
- Embedding culturally responsive program design to promote equity and increase gender and racial diversity in STEM.
- Increasing opportunities for girls to solve problems that matter to them and their communities.
- Building STEM identity by creating a continuum of experiences that draw on interests, knowledge, skills, culture and lived experiences.
- Engaging role models and mentors to inspire STEM career awareness.
For more information on Lockheed Martin’s philanthropic investments in the Future STEM Workforce, please visit https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/who-we-are/communities/stem-education.html