<div><strong>Overview:</strong>
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<div>We are <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">STEM Pals</a>, a grassroots outreach organization started by graduate students at the University of Washington to <strong>encourage, inspire &amp; (st)empower students in the Pacific Northwest to pursue <em>S</em>cience, <em>T</em>echnology, <em>E</em>ngineering, and <em>M</em>athematics activities and education post-graduation.</strong>
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<div>We bring hands-on STEM activities, demonstrations, and mentorship to students to supplement their K-12 education while providing insight into the lives of real scientists. By sharing our STEM experiences and making STEM accessible, fun, and interesting, we hope to empower students to consider a future in STEM. We know that we need people from diverse backgrounds working in STEM to tackle the complicated problems our society faces. But to do this, we need to bring STEM to students who are often overlooked for STEM opportunities or intimidated to be in STEM spaces.
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<div>Unfortunately, this is much more challenging than it sounds, and <strong>we need more support to keep doing this work!</strong> In the past, we have been supported by event-specific donations from our generous donors (<a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/about-us/stem-pals-funding/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">listed here</a>). While we are so appreciative of those who have supported us thus far, as our organization has grown and become more active, we have found this system to be unsustainable. We have even had to hold off on events or incur expenses ourselves when a donor cannot be identified quickly enough.
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<div>To help alleviate this burden, enable our growth, and support our continued service to our community, <strong>we are hoping to raise enough funds to last us at least until the summer of 2024.</strong> Having a monetary reserve to draw from for any event we plan will significantly improve our workflow and allow us to focus our efforts on the most impactful aspects of our outreach. <strong>Any donation will go a long way in helping us sustain STEM Pals and continue to bring STEM to students in our community!</strong>
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<div><strong>More about STEM Pals:</strong>
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<div>Since our inception in 2019, we have worked hard to make a positive impact on the future leaders of our world. We have grown a team of graduate students, undergraduates, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty volunteers from several departments at the University of Washington. Currently, <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/about-us/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the STEM Pals team comprises 15 folks</a> who actively work in content development and project management. We also have 125+ members in our Slack workspace who are ready to volunteer on an as-needed basis. We have collaborated with organizations such as the <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2023/02/13/pacsci-collaboration-fire-of-love-02-09-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pacific Science Center</a>, <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2023/04/13/nanocamp-in-hawaii-in-collaboration-with-uw-mem-c-03-22-2023-03-24-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UW Molecular Engineering Materials Center</a>, <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2023/05/07/volunteered-at-3-cei-events-04-25-2023-05-02-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UW Clean Energy Institute</a>, <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2022/10/21/virtual-augmented-reality-workshop-with-uw-reality-lab-at-hazen-high-school-10-18-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UW Reality Lab</a>, <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2023/02/21/introduce-a-girl-to-green-technology-wche-02-18-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Women in Chemical Engineering</a> and many more to bring exciting STEM opportunities to our community. You may learn more about us and our activities on our website: <a href="https://stempals.club" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em><a href="http://stempals.club" target="_blank" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">http://stempals.club</a></em></a>
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<div><em>[Note that all underlined words in this text are links that you can click.]</em>
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<div>Driven by our passion for outreach, <strong>we have reached a total of almost 2000 students, teachers, and community members across 25+ events to date.</strong>
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<div>Some of our past events include:
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<li><a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2023/04/13/nanocamp-in-hawaii-in-collaboration-with-uw-mem-c-03-22-2023-03-24-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nanoscience workshops at several schools in Hawaii</a>
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<li>An 8-week computer coding workshop for beginners at Hazen High School
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<li><a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2022/11/22/agar-plates-at-hazen-high-school-11-1822-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A microbiology contest</a> for students to investigate these invisible organisms
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<li>Flashlight soldering workshops (e.g., <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2022/05/16/science-day-at-seattle-world-school-soldering-flashlights-05-16-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">at Seattle World School</a>)
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<li><a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2022/10/21/virtual-augmented-reality-workshop-with-uw-reality-lab-at-hazen-high-school-10-18-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Virtual/augmented reality workshops</a>
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<li><a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2022/06/16/distributed-50-journals-05-06-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Academic journal distribution</a>
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<li><a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2023/06/12/stem-and-college-panel-at-hazen-high-school/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science and college panels</a>
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<li>Science demos for younger students at <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2023/05/31/demos-at-challenger-elementary-school-05-25-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Challenger Elementary</a>, <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2023/03/17/louisa-boren-stem-k-8-science-night-03-15-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Louisa Boren K-8</a>, <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2023/03/02/echo-lake-elementary-science-night-03-02-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Echo Lake Elementary</a>, <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2023/02/27/science-night-at-westgate-elementary-02-23-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Westgate Elementary</a>, and more.
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<div>We have found our work with the community to be very rewarding. We have gotten to experience firsthand students’ excitement and joy in STEM topics and their appreciation for making STEM approachable to them in ways it wasn’t before. Students and teachers have shared with us how STEM Pals has helped them; verbally, through our surveys, and in the form of notes (such as the one pictured below).
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/73775185_1688523168773014_r.jpeg" width="100%" />
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<div>Here are some quotes from a survey we administered to students at the end of the <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2022/11/22/agar-plates-at-hazen-high-school-11-1822-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">agar microbiology contest</a>, when asked about what they liked about it:
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<li><em>“I liked the simplicity of the activity and how we were able to conclude our hypothesis by the end.”</em>
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<li><em>“[I liked] Talking about bacteria and college education with Marc”</em>
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<li><em>“I really liked this activity because I got to grow my own bacteria from some place that I knew was non sanitary and was able to see bacteria grow in real life.”</em>
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<li><em>“the hands on stuff [and] just learning a lot, I really enjoyed it”</em>
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<li><em>“I really enjoyed how we were able to compare the cleanliness between two different surfaces. Especially with the pandemic, I found this activity really interesting!”</em>
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<div>Here are some <em>thank you</em> notes from students after STEM Pals members participated in <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2023/06/12/stem-and-college-panel-at-hazen-high-school/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a panel to answer their questions</a> about college and pursuing STEM after graduation:
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<li><em>“Thank you for answering all of our questions with kindness and depth. And making sure we heard perspectives from a lot of backgrounds!”</em>
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<li><em>“It was really helpful to get information about college that I didn’t know I needed”</em>
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<li><em>“Thank you! I feel a lot more comfortable about going to college next year.”</em>
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<li><em>“Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and advice with us! They were extremely helpful and made me feel a lot more prepared for college applications.”</em>
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<li><em>“Your advice with STEM was super useful! With all the information given it may lead me to take chemical engineering as a major.”</em>
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<div>We share these quotes to give you a glimpse into how STEM outreach can positively impact our communities. Opportunities to interact with scientists from all sorts of backgrounds on a human-to-human level can truly be life-changing for these students. We believe that this is a cause worth supporting for the sake of a brighter future!
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<div><strong>While we have a substantial and enthusiastic volunteer workforce, we currently lack the financial resources to make full use of it and maximize our impact on the community.</strong> This is why we are reaching out to the broader community for help.
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<div>So far, we have been supported by event-specific donations from our generous donors (<a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/about-us/stem-pals-funding/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">listed here</a>). However, this financial framework has become unsustainable for an active organization like ours, and it is frankly quite stressful to our leadership due to its inherent lack of certainty and security. Our funding situation has gotten to a point where we have had to hold off on activities that would have strengthened our role in the community. In fact, our leadership has even had to take on out-of-pocket expenses to keep the financial burden away from the general STEM Pals membership. Bear in mind that our leadership comprises graduate students, many of whom are already struggling financially to make it through their studies!
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<div>To help alleviate this burden and find a sense of security in our operations, <strong>we are hoping to raise enough funds to last us at least until the summer of 2024.</strong> We believe that, as opposed to scrambling around to find funds for each activity, having a monetary reserve to draw from will significantly improve our workflow and allow us to invest more effort in the impactful aspects of our outreach, such as developing STEM activities, recruiting volunteers, working with students and teachers, collaborating with other outreach organizations, etc.
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<div>Below is a non-exhaustive list of how raised funds will be used:
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<div><strong>Materials for demos and workshops:</strong> We bring all of the materials for an event with us to take the burden off of schools, teachers, and students. The electronics needed for the <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2023/07/02/trouble-in-deep-space-with-iurban-teen-6-24-23/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">soldering workshop</a>, the agar for our <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2022/11/22/agar-plates-at-hazen-high-school-11-1822-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">microbiology activity</a>, and more are some of our main expenses.
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<li><strong>Mileage reimbursement:</strong> Our membership provides transportation to and from events. These expenses add up, and can cost $60+/each for some events!
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<li><strong>Science kits:</strong> We are currently using donated funds to develop two potential ‘science kits’ - a hydro generator and a quantum light! Once beta-tested, we hope to mass-produce and distribute these to schools along with worksheets. More funds = more kits!
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<li><strong>Website domain and merchandise:</strong> Exposure is crucial to establishing our place in the broader community, so that we can continue to find opportunities to work with schools in our area who need it!
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<li><strong>Expenses for the 2023 STEM Expo:</strong> We have been planning a large-scale day-long STEM Expo for several months to take place on Nov. 4th. About 100 students from several schools will interact with professionals in various STEM fields, learn about exciting concepts and careers, and gain guidance on college decision-making. We estimate about $2,500 in expenses for AV tech, venue, catering, demo materials and other miscellaneous expenses.
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<div>Needless to say, <strong>even a donation as small as $5 will go a long way in helping us sustain our operations</strong> and take the pressure off of our leadership and members. <strong>If you are unable to donate at this time, we would still appreciate your support in spreading word of this fundraiser to others</strong> who might be interested in this cause. Unless requested otherwise, all donors will be listed on <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/about-us/stem-pals-funding/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">this page of our website</a>, and credited elsewhere as appropriate. We are also considering hosting a <em>Meet and Greet</em> event at UW for donors and other supporters to meet the STEM Pals team sometime in September or October 2023. More information on this to come!
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<div>Since all STEM Pals members are unpaid volunteers, <strong>funds raised will be used solely to further our mission of empowering underserved K-12 students.</strong> We are focused on working with students who are already vulnerable due to socioeconomic factors such as income, school district, ethnicity, gender, and more. All funds will be deposited in the STEM Pals checking account, which is co-owned by two of the three co-presidents (<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/alksnow/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Al Snow</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariana-frey-864b62128/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ariana Frey</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleegregorio/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nicole Gregorio</a>). Since STEM Pals operates using a democratic decision-making approach, bank withdrawals will require both Nicole’s and Al’s signatures. For full transparency, we would be more than happy to provide donors with updates on expenditures.
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<div>Hopefully, we have demonstrated our capability in altruistically putting your funds to good use. If you would like more information, or want to reach out to us for any other reason, please do not hesitate to contact us by clicking the “Contact” button on this GoFundMe page, or through the <a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/contact-2/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Contact page on our website</a>.
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<div>We sincerely thank you for your time and support!
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<div>The STEM Pals Team
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<div><a href="https://stempals.club" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em><a href="http://stempals.club" target="_blank" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">http://stempals.club</a></em></a>
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<div><em>The cover image at the top of this page is from </em><a href="https://stempals.wordpress.com/2023/02/21/introduce-a-girl-to-green-technology-wche-02-18-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>our tables at the Introduce a Girl</em></a><em> to Green Technology event hosted by Women in Chemical Engineering.</em>
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Anonymous

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Rui Gregorio

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Eric Anderson

Yafei Ren

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Still $3,280 to go. Help us build momentum.