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3Mgives provides funding boost to encourage Kiwi girls into STEMM careers
September 28, 2022-
Innovative Young Minds (IYM), an organisation dedicated to introducing and encouraging women to pursue careers in STEMM, is expanding its work following a resoundingly successful residential programme this year.
Founded in 2017 by Rotary Hutt City and supported by Hutt City Council, IYM is a programme designed to encourage young women to explore science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and high-tech manufacturing – also known as the STEMM sector.
This year, IYM has received a boost to their organisation through NZ$124,000 (US$85,000) two 3Mgives grants. 3M is also committed to supporting initiatives that advance equitable outcomes in STEMM and businesses for under-represented and under-resourced populations. In 2021, 3M announced a significant goal to generate five million STEM and Skilled Trades learning experiences for underrepresented youth by the end of 2025.
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The 3Mgives grants provided to IYM will allow the organisation to expand its work by developing a growth strategy with the vision to deliver its STEMM immersion programmes to even more participants. IYM Chairperson Gaylene Hughes highlights the importance of the investment.
“Women have historically been underrepresented in STEMM industries, not only in New Zealand, but around the world,” Hughes says.
“Our programmes aim to show the diversity of STEMM roles available in New Zealand and encourage young women to get involved. The support from companies operating in New Zealand, such as 3M, is vital to improving rates of representation in STEMM and is gratefully received.”
According to TechWomen, less than one in 20 girls consider a high-paid career in science, technology, engineering or maths, compared to one in five boys, with women occupying only 23 percent of professional IT roles overall.
Through the grants, IYM hopes to expand their work to include more programmes that will reach more young women.
IYM currently runs two key programmes:
- IYM Online where 100 students join a five-day online programme where they are exposed to the wide range of research and career opportunities available in STEMM.
- IYM Residential where 40 students come together for a yearly week-long course where they experience the wide range of study, research and career opportunities available in Wellington.
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This year’s residential programme kicked off on July 10 and key highlights included a hands-on session with JackBord Robotics, where attendees built mobile robots using electronics, science and robotic principles; learnt about space biology at New Zealand Astrobiology
Network’s amazing portable pop-up planetarium; and participated in an Innovation Challenge where student teams designed and pitched smart city solutions to industry judges.
“Nearly 550 young women from around New Zealand have been impacted by IYM’s programmes to date,” Hughes says, “and of those, 84 percent of high school graduates who attended IYM are studying or working in STEMM.”
“We are thrilled to have such a high success rate in encouraging women into further STEMM education and 3M’s grant will allow us to inspire so many more Kiwi women to enter STEMM.”
The generous grants from 3M aligns with the organisation’s commitment to improving lives through innovation and action.
Eleni Sideridis, Managing Director and General Counsel of 3M Australia and New Zealand says, “3M is committed to supporting outstanding New Zealand organisations who are aligned with our key values to improve lives and support communities.
“Innovative Young Minds is doing incredible work to encourage young Kiwi women into STEMM, and we hope our contribution will make a difference to empowering women to pursue STEMM.”
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