STEMinista Project collaborative partners work to remove barriers for girls pursuing STEM careers

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At 11 years old, Cayla Thomas already had a business plan for a new nail polish line, called PYOUR, that wouldn’t trigger her asthma. Her pitch during an entrepreneurship camp hosted by the Michigan Science Center (MiSci) resulted in a $500 scholarship to launch her business.

MiSci hosted four camps this summer, including the entrepreneurship camp that Cayla attended, through the center’s STEMinista Project. The weeklong camp allowed young girls to create business pitches utilizing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) as the foundation. And by the end of the camp, Cayla not only had a business plan, but also a goal to become a chemical engineer.

“I really liked how the [instructors] were teaching us at our own pace, incorporating fun things into it,” Cayla says.

Cayla’s mom, Nakia Thomas, sat in the audience when her daughter was named the winner. Accompanied by other family members, Thomas remembers loudly cheering on her daughter and her passion for STEM.

“It’s not a man’s job. [Women] can go into STEM as well. It’s the idea of educating girls early on about what they can do,” Thomas says. “[Cayla] came up with an idea for a nail polish business. That right there is STEM.

“It was exciting to meet other women who are into all STEM, some of them who look just like her [Cayla]. Now she can say, ‘You know, they’re doing what I want to do, and I can do it too.’”

Girls face several barriers to pursuing STEM in school and beyond, which has led to underrepresentation in these fields. The challenges girls face include gender stereotypes and parental expectations that may cause them to lose interest in STEM, researchers say.

The job outlook for STEM occupations is bright in Michigan; according to Michigan STEM Partnership, STEM opportunities are expected to grow by 11.8% through next year, compared to 8.5% for all occupations. However, men continue to outnumber women in employment and training. In Michigan, for every woman working in STEM there are 3.4 men, according to a study of census data. In 2015, women accounted for 28% of workers in science and engineering occupations, despite constituting half of the college-educated workforce, the National Science Board says.

The lack of female role models in STEM occupations can also play a role in discouraging girls from STEM careers, and that’s where MiSci’s STEMinista Project comes in. The program brings girls and women in STEM together and nearly 10,000 girls have attended STEMinista Project events over the past few years.