UIW Hosts Annual GEMS Summer Program

This summer, UIW hosted its Girls in Engineering, Math and Science (GEMS) program, an annual program whose goal is to increase the number of young women interested in STEM fields.

The GEMS program, first established in 2015, hosts free science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) and programming camps for middle school and high school girls from Title I schools in San Antonio. The mission of the GEMS program is to provide the opportunity for female students and their STEM teachers from low-income areas of San Antonio to attend a free high-quality and high-impact STEAM summer camp where they can learn about STEAM study and careers through guest lecturers, group activities and research.

"GEMS is UIW's Mission in action," remarked Stephanie Weiss-Lopez, project manager/coordinator of GEMS and UIW's Autonomous Vehicle Systems (AVS) labs. "By going directly into the neighborhoods that surround the University, GEMS is able to provide resources and opportunities directly to the community."

Weiss-Lopez notes that when planning the program, she considers how to provide meaningful opportunities that can help the next generation of the workforce gain the skills and support they need to succeed, as well as offer young girls encouragement to explore their intellectual curiosity.

The program is split into two groups corresponding to the participants' ages: miniGEMS for middle school level students and megaGEMS for high school level students.

MiniGEMS focuses on robotic challenges and innovative STEM curriculum in weekly after-school clubs. The students work with LEGO Spike Prime robots to explore robotics and coding in basic block coding. MegaGEMS focuses on independent study through two programs: the Research Camp (RC), a four-week-long program for ninth and tenth-grade students, and an internship, a six-week college-level research program for 11th and 12th-grade students.

The program concludes with an End of Summer Symposium which mimics a conference setting. Students are taught how to present their scientific research in poster format so that they may share their work with their family and friends in the UIW community. Students can keep their posters so they can present them at other local conferences.

The program additionally promotes the development of personal skills that are applicable in many parts of life such as self-efficacy, teamwork, communications, creativity, community support, etc.

"I have seen how the students have increased their confidence and come out of their shells," shared Weiss-Lopez. "I have seen shy students become outgoing, nervous public speakers became confident presenters and I have seen below-average writers become great writers. The environment that the GEMS students are exposed to during each program allows them to thrive in a safe, fun, STEM-inspired and female-empowered arena. Each girl has a chance to find their path to create."

As this year's GEMS program ended, Weiss-Lopez hopes that her students know that they are capable of accomplishing great things in school or their careers and that UIW and their community are there to provide them with the resources, support and guidance necessary to help make their dreams a reality.

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