STEM isn’t
just a boy thing.​​ 

(Photos: Tania Fernandez)​​ 

“I read somewhere that for every one girl that’s in a STEM career, there’s like five boys.”​​ 

This observation came from sixth grader Danielle Amos, looking around the classroom with eyes filled with wonder. “To see that there are 50 girls who want to partake in this is just crazy.”​​ 

Seated in the 3D printing lab at the Patrick Henry Community College Thomas P. Dalton IDEA Center, Danielle is busy collaborating with other girls on 3D-printed designs for their upcoming STEM project presentations. Working in small teams, the girls create solutions to issues in their community and present them to their parents and others as the culminating event of this Verizon Innovative Learning three-week STEM immersion experience.​​ 

Now in its second summer at Patrick Henry Community College in Martinsville, VA, the program is one of 16 around the country focused on getting middle school girls in rural communities excited about careers in STEM. Between summer intensives, the students meet monthly for field trips and to hone their skills.​​ 

It’s all part of the Verizon Innovative Learning mission to provide free technology, free internet access and hands-on learning experiences to help underserved students get the education they deserve. The girls learn 3D printing and vinyl cutting, use littleBits electronic building blocks to master coding techniques, and create augmented and virtual reality experiences they then view through AR and VR goggles. They also build VR goggles out of cardboard to take home. ♦​​ 

(Photos: Tania Fernandez)​​ 

“I’ve seen tremendous growth in her.”​​ 

Instructor Helen Howell said of Chloe Taylor, citing how the 12-year-old’s writing and public speaking skills have blossomed and how well Chloe did when presenting in front of approximately 50 people a few weeks prior.​​ 

Now in her second summer with Verizon Innovative Learning, Chloe took to heart the advice from one of the morning speakers “to never give up.” “When I get frustrated I want to stop sometimes. To know that I shouldn't give up even though it's tough to keep working through it, that's really helped,” she says.​​ 

It’s important advice for someone who not only wants to go to Harvard and eventually become a neurosurgeon, but whose favorite part of the program is inventing.​​ 

Surrounded by the 3D-printed projects that are scattered all over the center—inspiring examples of what the technology can do—she explains her STEM project with a quiet confidence that will serve her well as a surgeon.​​ 

Her project: a LED-lit spoon for infants who, due to damage to their ocular nerve, can see only light. The lights help define the spoon so infants know to open their mouths to eat, and there’s also “a little section on the spoon [that] has words to tell the parent either the food is too hot, too cold, or [that] they have too much or too little on the spoon,” Chloe says. As far as she knows, nothing like this spoon exists yet, and it’s projects like this that have made her feel “more confident with my inventions and problem solving.”​​ 

About the program, she adds, “A really cool thing is being a part of a group of girls that can eventually, or even now, change the world.” ♦​​ 

(Photos: Tania Fernandez)​​ 

“Don’t be afraid to be smart.”​​ 

With a bubbling energy and a wide, winning smile, twelve-year-old Nayti Patel thrives on challenges, which is what attracts her to biomedical engineering. She likes that engineering is a field where almost no one gets things right the first time and that you have to be persistent and keep trying.​​ 

One of her recent challenges has been raising her hand in class when no one else has their hand up. “I was like, what if everybody just stares at me and then they'll be calling me ‘smarty pants.’​​  

They're going to be calling me names,” she says. But after one of the morning speakers told them, “Don’t be afraid to be smart,” and to raise their hands in class, she decided, “I don't care what anybody thinks about me. I know the answer and I want to be better in math and science. So I'm going to say the answer and I'm going to say it proudly.”​​ 

“That's what I see her getting from this [program],” instructor Liz Lynch says about Nayti. “She's getting that smart is cool; that smart can bring you places.” ♦​​ 

(Photos: Tania Fernandez)​​ 

“I love building things with new technology.”​​ 

Nadia Flores seems so at ease speaking but Lynch points out that the 13-year-old used to be shy and terrified of public speaking, in part because English is her second language.​​ 

Nadia is a leader in her middle school’s robotics club, and the STEM project Nadia and her all-girl team presented at a state championship garnered first place, making this the first time Martinsville has won an award at the state level. Their product, Litmus Lipstick, changes colors to indicate whether or not the person wearing it is well hydrated. Nadia’s team is thinking of patenting it and making a face paint version for boys who play sports like football. Lynch, who is also Nadia’s teacher at school, makes a direct connection between Nadia’s win and her time with Verizon Innovative Learning. “She just had that ‘stick-to-it-iveness’ that I know was fostered from this program.​​  

I really think [Verizon Innovative Learning] was a springboard for thinking scientifically.”​​ 

Nadia wanted to be a doctor before learning how many years she’d have to spend in school, she admits sheepishly; now she wants to be an engineer. “I love building things with new technology,” something she figured out through robotics and being in the program this year. It also helped her improve in math. She puffs with pride as she shares that she went from scoring 80s on tests to now scoring 99s, and that she skipped math 7 this past year to go straight from math 6 to algebra.​​ 

On public speaking she says, “I’m always nervous speaking in front of other people,” admitting she was “freaking out” when presenting the lipstick to the judges at states. But, she adds, “I’m getting used to it now that this program is helping me.” ♦​​ 

(Photos: Tania Fernandez)​​ 

“Oh, that’s a boy’s job. You can’t do that.”​​ 

Petite with a charming cuteness about her, it’s easy to see how someone could underestimate how strong and determined Danielle Amos has become. Before starting Verizon Innovative Learning last summer, she thought she’d work in an office somewhere simply to earn enough money to live. But that all changed when the program taught her there were jobs she could do that harnessed her fascination with space.​​ 

 “I never thought that I could be a NASA engineer because that just seemed way too crazy. I’ve always been told, ‘Oh, that’s a boy’s job. You can’t do that.’” Now, she says, “Stuff like that makes me want to do it more so I can prove to people that say that that girls can actually do things that boys can.”​​ 

Being in the program has helped her better understand big picture science concepts.​​  

She’s connecting the dots on a deeper level, she says, and while she’s always been an A student, her test scores this past year increased from 90s to 100s. Doing things like 3D printing, which she describes as “really crazy to see your ideas come to life,” has improved her math skills too.​​ 

She lights up as she points to the cones and cylinders that are the building blocks of Tinkercad, a 3D design program, sharing how measuring their radius and diameter has increased her understanding of how these concepts play out in the actual creation of objects.​​ 

The confidence and skills she’s gained haven’t only been career changing for her, they’ve been life changing. Before the program, she says, “I wanted to change the world in some way, but I wouldn’t have known how to do it. The [program] showed me that no matter where you came from or what your problems are, you can do anything in this world.” ♦​​