Help Stemist bring STEM to underprivileged kids!

Hey Science Pioneers! If you’re looking to make a massive change in our future, you’ve come to the right place!

First of all, who am I? My name is Ojas Chaudhary, a junior at Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology, and a future scientist. Through my school, and outside activities, I’ve been heavily invested in all sorts of STEM-related activities, from being our school's nationally ranked Ocean Bowl team’s co-captain to building novel AI algorithms to diagnose brain diseases (more information below)!

So what am I doing? TJ is famous (notorious) for being an extremely STEM-focused school, which was truly one of the most compelling reasons why I applied to this school. However, I have come to realize that not every kid gets the same opportunity to ignite their interest in the STEM field as I did. Given we are increasingly moving towards a technology-driven world where we need more engineers, scientists and builders, I decided to find a novel way to provide this spark to many more kids in the community around me. Through Stemist, I intend to build and give out fun and innovative kits to kids in lower economic status areas around my community, a demographic that is typically not introduced to this field and typically never gets a chance to develop their interests at a young age. These science kits will cover a variety of topics and will be both educational and exciting, so hands-on science can be enjoyed outside the classroom (in a safe manner).

What’s the backstory? TJ recently made national headlines for the change in its admission process. The school demographics and surrounding county demographics were quite different; therefore the process and rigor of the admissions process were changed to change the cohort mix entering into TJ. As I dug into the reasons behind this change, I came to realize that the Education Board wasn't actually tackling the root cause of the problem. The admissions process wasn't the problem, but the lack of interest in STEM and the tools to strive for and get into a school like TJ was the problem. Interest in STEM needs to come at an early age, ideally in elementary school, and I was lucky enough to have wonderful teachers (shoutout to Mr. Martin!) and resources to develop my interests. However, many kids in my community never get that chance.

And what will the donations do? Every penny of your donation will go into building and distributing our first kits. Since our kits will directly contribute to an interest in STEM, your donations practically fund the future! The world needs as much innovation as it can get, so we can make a difference together with your donations!

Every $5 will allow us to get one kit to one kid! Of course, any amount of cash that brings us closer to our goal is one step closer to helping everyone become a scientist, so thank you for your help in advance, at whatever amount you can donate.

If you know anyone else who would love to help, or just want to mass-send emails to everyone you know to get involved in this noble effort, please feel free to share this page!

Regards and thank you

-Ojas