Mission: The Math/Science Network pursues as its mission the promotion of the continuing development in mathematics and science of all people, with particular emphasis on the needs of women and girls.
Our primary goal is to increase the participation, retention, and advancement of girls and women in mathematics, science, engineering, and technology. We do this through our primary program, Expanding Your Horizons in Science and Mathematics (EYH).
Programs: We base our primary program, Expanding Your Horizons, on the following assumptions:
* In order to increase the participation of women in mathematics, science, engineering, and technology careers, there must be an increase in the pool of qualified women.
* In order for young women to have the option to enter mathematics, science, engineering, and technology careers, they need to choose to take the appropriate mathematics and science courses in school.
* In order to increase the participation of girls in mathematics classes, we need intervention strategies that nurture enjoyment and confidence in mathematics, connect the value of mathematics to career opportunities, provide career role models, and actively encourage girls to persevere in mathematics courses.
Since 1976, the Network has licensed and coordinated Expanding Your Horizons activities where young women in grades 6 through 12 are encouraged to persevere in math and science and to enter math-based careers. Our program works by bringing girls together to do hands-on workshops with women role models who work with math everyday.
Since 1976, over 550,000 young women have learned about the joys of math-based activities at Expanding your Horizons conferences.
Each year, the Network licenses and supports EYH conferences for girls at 100 sites around the country.
I have been involved with the EYH organization for more than 30 years,both at the national and at the local level. The 1-day conferences held at approximately 100 different sites reaches many thousands of middle and high school girls each year. The girls are introduced to STEM careers that they might never have otherwise heard about, and they discover that math and science can be interesting, challenging, and fun. The EYH Network has an enormous impact and does this with a very limited budget. Many volunteers all over the country work to make these conferences successful.
The Expanding Your Horizons network provides hands-on outreach to girls in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics by engaging members of the professional community. It's incredibly motivating for girls to have the opportunity to see first-hand the benefits of concerted academics in these areas, but it's even more rewarding as the adult reaching out to these girls. Instigating that spark of interest can often mean the difference between a girl throwing in the towel in the face of a difficult math class, versus giving it all she's got. It's one of the most directly effective organizations I've had the pleasure of working with.
