CURATED PATHWAYS
TO INNOVATION™
YWCA Golden Gate Silicon Valley, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Santa Clara University jointly created Curated Pathways to Innovation (CPI), an app that helps to set women and underrepresented minorities on the path to STEM careers.
OUR MODEL
A web-based app, CPI™ acts as a “virtual guidance counselor” and uses machine learning, artificial intelligence and gamification to guide and incent students – they can select activities that engage and motivate while building their curated STEM+C pathways.
The project plans to broaden participation in STEM+C programs and prepare students for the 21st Century workforce by utilizing an explicit, adaptive system enabled through technology to define and customize alternative STEM+C pathways, and to advise, lead, and track students in their continuing development.
The CPI™ pilot project has been developing and testing a longitudinal advisory and tracking system, harnessing a networked community partnership, accountably impacting student choices, and transparently disseminating effective strategies in STEM+C student and career development.
THE ISSUE
By focusing on underrepresented minorities, those who are African American, Latino, and American Indian/Alaska Native, and on female students in computer science and engineering pathways in Silicon Valley, the CPI™ pilot project will have an impact on immediate preparation for jobs. The project has launched its efforts specifically in the East side of San Jose, CA with plans to expand future work to all STEM+C disciplines across the country.
The under representation of minorities and women in STEM+C persists, greatly impacting U.S. competitiveness. In Silicon Valley alone, a recent estimate counted over 100 local STEM education programs. However, no common platform currently exists for consistent and shared outcomes measurement.
THE SOLUTION
A clear path will benefit non-profits, corporations, educational institutions, government and students by providing greater exposure, a networked effort, measurable results and a simplified pathway.
The key ingredient of CPI™ is a platform that incentivizes and enables a student’s success along their journey. A robust recommendation algorithm guides them on their individual path and helps them make critical choices along the way.
IT’S A CRADLE-TO-CAREER PROCESS
Getting underrepresented minorities and women interested in STEM learning and curious about the subjects and opportunities begins in Pre-Kand extends through university to career. Many programs only address 1-2 phases of this process- they don’t connect or aggregate resources to assist a participant on the journey from school to career like CPI™ does.
THE IMPACT
Currently, CPI has had the ability to gather and analyze over 2 years of data to assess the results of the pilot on sustaining student motivation and persistence. The results are positive and encouraging.
As of the end of the 2018-2019 School Year, our analysis shows that Curated Pathways is increasing students’ motivation and aspiration in pursuit of computing and STEM, and sustaining it for girls, when national research shows student interest in STEM+C steeply declines, particularly for underrepresented minorities and girls, in the same age/grade levels.
Latinx students’ self-efficacy in working with computers positively increased in a statistically significant result.
SETTING WOMEN AND UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITIES ON THE PATH TO STEM CAREERS
By 2020, more than 50 percent of STEM jobs are projected to be in computer science (CS) related fields.
If currect trends continue, 1.4
million CS related jobs will be available over the next ten years.
Many K-12 schools offer no computer programming classes and 25 out of 50 states do not count these classes towards high school graduation requirements.
TODAY 70% OF COMPUTING DEGREES IN THE U.S. ARE EARNED BY WHITE MEN..
...YET THEY ONLY MAKE UP 30% OF THE POPULATION
Curated Pathways to Innovation™ is a direct service, systems change, and collective impact initiative incubated by:
