Girl Scouts Bringing STEM School to Indy
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowGirl Scouts of Central Indiana is partnering with a new all-girls STEM school for grades K-8 in Indianapolis. The school will support the Girl Scouts USA’s goal of putting 2.5 million girls in the STEM pipeline by 2025.
The project will be led by Jenn Watts, executive director of Every Girl Can STEM. Watts previously was director of policy for the Indiana Department of Education and managed the development of Indiana’s first statewide STEM Strategic Plan with the Indiana STEM Advisory Council.
On Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick, Girl Scouts of Central Indiana Chief Executive Officer Danielle Shockey said STEM isn’t new territory for the program.
"We’ve been around for over a hundred years, and actually one of the first badges in Girl Scouts was the naturalist badge. In the war efforts we added aviation and electrical engineering type badges for women to support the efforts, so it’s really been a part of our DNA for a very long time. And now, today, we actually have partners like Raytheon, Motorola, Apple and others who write our STEM curriculum for our girl badges so it’s very much a robust part of what we do. Last year in Indiana 19,000 badges in just STEM were earned by our girls."
Watts is currently recruiting board members and a school leader to help design the charter school, and says a location for the school is yet to be determined. The school is seeking sponsorships and investors and plans to open in the fall of 2021.