Diversity in STEM Review: let's talk solutions

Hi, I’m Kelsie. I’m a geologist and academic by training but now work as the Program Director for Curious Minds, a federally-funded, national program for girls in STEM from under-represented groups. I have always been passionate about making sure that women fully participate in the STEM workforce and working for a program, such as Curious Minds, that targets girls in Years 9 and 10, is a great place to be. This submission is about the Curious Minds program and how it assists the target groups to ignite their passion in STEM and consider a career in STEM as part of their future.
Gender diversity
Curious Minds was funded by the Australian Government to encourage girls to study STEM at senior high school and university and to allow them to see the range of careers that are available in STEM. We target students who are high achievers in STEM but lack the opportunity to participate in STEM extension programs because of where they live or their socio-economic circumstances. Our program started in 2015 and at that time, had two residential camps, one in December and the second in July, separated by a six-month mentoring program. The students are matched with a female STEM professional, and they work together on a STEM interest project for the coaching program.
In 2019, our program went online due to the COVID pandemic, but still continued with the two “camps” and mentoring program. We made a successful transition to online delivery. When running the camps online, we developed a naming convention for all participants to identify the students and staff and for ease of movement in and out of break-out rooms. The naming convention includes the optional use of pronouns. Almost all participants, both staff and students, opted to include pronouns. This highlighted the number of participants in our cohort each year who identify as other than female, using either masculine, he/him pronouns, neutral they/them pronouns, or a combination of pronouns.
Understanding the gender diversity in the cohort, we have tried to make our online program as inclusive and safe as possible. We have adjusted the language we use, provided staff and mentors with diversity and inclusion training, and will include a session on diversity at our upcoming residential camp. Students appreciate being able to identify as gender diverse.

Mental health and neurodiversity
As with gender diversity, we understand that our cohort of students have a diverse range of mental health issues. We have always been aware of this diversity during our camps, in part because it is made known to us by parents or carers prior to the camp. However, we have seen (or better recognised) the levels of stress and anxiety grow over the years. Our students are high achievers, they are concerned about their school work and many take on extra tasks. Many have several extra-curricula activities and have jobs (paid and unpaid) either at home or in the community. Taking on the extra workload involved with participation in Curious Minds, can be stressful to some.
To tackle this issue, we have included a session on mental health in our December camp and have changed the wording of the guidelines for the “project” students work on between camps in collaboration with their STEM mentor. We are now calling this a STEM exploration and stress that it is not assessed and can be as large or small as they like and on any STEM-related topic.

Celebrating Women in STEM
A highlight for students is our mentoring program, which we call the Curious Minds Coaching Program. Coaching starts at the December camp, which continues to be delivered online. Students first meet our coach cohort using a virtual speed networking format. This was designed to allow the students to meet as many of our coaches as possible and learn about a vast range of careers in STEM, many they have likely never heard of. Experience over several years of online delivery, has led to our present “slow” speed networking, where larger groups of coaches and students meet in breakout rooms, reducing the need for switching rooms and repetition of stories. Students and coaches then have a workshop facilitated by our Head Coach. During the workshop they ….
Each coach and student partnership meet for around an hour about every three weeks between the December and July camps. As our students and coaches come from around Australia and often live in regional or remote locations, these meetings are typically online. During this period, the students complete an exploration of an area of STEM interest, and this forms a vehicle that drives interaction between the coach and student. Each meeting has a suggested guideline and activity, but these do not need to be completed. After each meeting, the students and coach complete an “exit ticket”, which allows the Program Director to monitor the progress of the coaching partnership.
Students and coaches come together again at the July camp and the students present the results of their STEM exploration in small groups.
The coaching program allows the students to meet and work with women in STEM fields that they are interested in. This provides positive role models and gives the students an opportunity to ask questions about being a women in STEM.