An important goal of our Global Travelers eClub is to lead at least one grant each fiscal year. Most recently, we have led a clean water project in Colombia and a liver cancer treatment project in Egypt. Our current grant is focused on empowering women as STEM educators in underserved communities in India.
Three members of our club worked with Sandhya Gupta to develop this grant proposal and shepherd it through the approval process. Sandhya is currently a resident of India, where she works on STEM education projects. She previously lived and worked in Minnesota and visits often.
7 other clubs in the Twin Cities contributed to this project. We also have participation from Palampur Rotary in India and from our NGO partner Aavishkaar.
The philosophy behind this grant is that girls who have STEM skills and have confidence in their ability to use their skills have a strong route to prosperity. When girls learn from female teachers it reinforces their belief that they can succeed in STEM.
The program takes a three-pronged approach in empowering STEM teachers:
- Increasing their understanding of important math and science concepts
- Instructing them in good teaching practices specific to science and math
- Bolstering their confidence in their ability in this subject areas — giving them a growth mindset
The project that we are funding will educate 75 women fellows in three groups of 25 in remote communities in Chhattisgarh. Two partner organizations — Sankalp Ek Pryas and Aavishkaar — will be responsible for excuting the project.
We anticipate that the 75 female teachers we educate with this project will go on to impact 600 teachers and 20,000 students. An impressive impact for an investment of about $24,000!
You can view the video of Sandhya’s presentation of this impressive project here.
