SHOOTING STARS FOUNDATION INC
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Mission Statement
At The Shooting Stars Foundation (501c3) our mission is to empower individuals and communities to break the cycle of generational poverty through STEM education. We envision a future where all young people have equal access to the STEM knowledge and skills needed to achieve academic success, career success, upward mobility, and a lifetime of economic self-sufficiency for themselves, their families, and their communities. Shooting Stars works to provide STEM education opportunities to underserved students in two primary ways. (1) US Engagement: We provide more than 20 different STEM educational experiences ranging from web design and development to cybersecurity to data analytics for underserved communities across the US. (2) India and Africa Engagement: We provide financial assistance to students completing college, graduate or professional degrees in STEM disciplines. We also provide ample training in English language, interview preparation, job placement, etc. 2025 Goals: (1) Provide STEM education programs to underserved and underrepresented students in the US: Reach 2,025 students by 2025. (2) Provide STEM college scholarships for underserved students in India and Kenya: Give 2025 scholarships by 2025 - up from 450 scholarships in 2020. Build a sustainable model by mentoring our scholarship and program recipients to help others in the future: More than 25% of our recipients go on to volunteer/mentor in the SSF family To learn more visit our website: https://shooting-stars-foundation.org/
About This Cause
Shooting Stars works to provide STEM education opportunities to underserved students in two primary ways. 1) US Engagement: We provide more than 20 different STEM educational experiences ranging from web design and development to cybersecurity to data analytics for underserved communities across the US. 2) India and Africa Engagement: We provide financial assistance to students completing college, graduate or professional degrees in STEM disciplines. We also provide ample training in English language, interview preparation, job placement, etc. STEM Camps include data science, tech business and entrepreneurship, website design and development, cybersecurity, game design and development, mobile app design and development, video creation, graphic design and animation, and hackathons. Students leave our camps with a new understanding of tech skills and an increased confidence in their tech skills. They also build a project portfolio that can be showcased in high school or college applications and in intern and career interviews. What makes our STEM programs stand out? 1) We work before, during, and after our programming to ensure a minimum of 80% attendance and 100% participation 2) We engage in a completely hands on model where students leave all of our programs with a tangible output, ready to be presented on a college application, resume, or in job interviews. 3) We utilize peer mentors in our camps - students who have recently completed the camp and were inspired to continue their tech education by coming back to lead the camps. This helps students who are new to tech feel more comfortable in a new learning environment. 4) We engage professional mentors from the camp’s respective industry to come and work with and speak to the students, showing them what is possible for them in STEM. 5) Our camps and courses are team based and rooted in competition - encouraging students to push themselves and collaborate. We find that this approach keeps students interested and involved. 6) We host a final day showcase where students present their completed projects to an audience of their friends and family, SSF staff, partner organization representatives, and any funding parties. This empowers students to practice public speaking while showcasing what they were able to accomplish 7) Our programs break many of the barriers to participation that most traditional tech ed programs have including cost, access to tech, etc, 8) To further opportunities to engage in STEM education and leadership, we offer internship and volunteer opportunities to all of our program participants. Participants can advance from students to leaders, teaching other young people. As of October 2022, we are well on the way to meeting our big goals. We have reached more than 1,500 underserved students with our US based programs and more than 650 students in India and Kenya have received SSF scholarships. We have achieved these results through deep partnerships with other similarly minded non profit organizations such as EAH Low Income Housing, Community In Schools, AVID, Self e-STEM, National Society of Black Engineers, etc. With the generous support of corporations like IBM, Amgen, Netscout, Google, Nike, Uber, Mirosoft etc, and their contribution of valuable employee volunteer hours, we would not be able to reach so many deserving youth!