We're passionate about STEM education!
“STEM education has the power to improve all of our lives. Our hope is that by equipping our youth with the right skills, tools, and opportunities, we can inspire our next generation of innovators, ensuring a bright future for our community, and our world.”
Founded in 2000 by Leslie Wilkins, the President and CEO of MEDB, Women in Technology was launched to build and strengthen the education to workforce pipeline. Recognizing the need to have a Hawaii-led STEM Service-learning education program, we launched STEMworks™ to engage, inspire, and motivate K-12 students and underrepresented groups.
For nearly two decades, STEMworks™ – a program of Maui Economic Development Board, Inc.’s (MEDB) Women in Technology project – has led the state in progressive Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education. Today, our STEM Service-Learning, project-based model is recognized nationally as an innovative, relevant, and successful approach to education.
The mission of STEMworks™ is to provide students and teachers resources, inspiration, and tools that empower them to improve their community and the world.
Our programs:
provide students and teachers with the most current, high-end technologies available in some of the most progressive STEM fields in the world.
foster an educational environment that helps participants gain insight into their own abilities to acquire and use information, solve problems, and gain valuable experience in using this technology.
encourage students to become creative, intuitive, adaptable learners and collaborators who can solve unpredictable, real-world problems.
Since the STEMworks™ program began in 2000 as a Maui pilot, it has grown to include every island, involving 29 schools, and over 40,000 students and teachers annually.
This critical mass spurred the creation of MEDB’s annual Hawai‘i STEM Conference. Held on Oahu, STEMworks™ students and teachers, along with community and business leaders across the state are invited to celebrate STEM service-learning projects, hear stories of inspiration, engage in activities with some of the biggest names in STEM, and experience the excitement of a regional technology conference.
Our Mission
The mission of STEMworks™ is to provide students and teachers resources, inspiration, and tools that empower them to improve their community and the world. A statewide program led by Women in Technology (an initiative of the Maui Economic Development Board), STEMworks™ pursues its goals through a variety of offerings including the STEMworks AFTERschool™ program, STEMworks™ internships, STEMwork™s THINKit™, STEMworks™ teacher professional development, STEMworks™ Energy, and the Hawaii STEM Conference.
All of STEMworks™’ initiatives focus on empowering students with 21st century skills to prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow while solving their communities’ problems of today. STEMworks™ students collaborate in teams to tackle an issue within their community through service learning. The STEMworks™ approach teaches students the real-world applications of STEM while developing their skills around acquiring and analyzing information, applying the latest high tech industry tools and developing professional and career skills.
STEMworks™ knows these experiences will encourage middle and high school students in Hawaii to pursue STEM training and careers available on the islands, enriching the workforce and strengthening the local economy. Too often, students fail to see the opportunities available on the islands and think they have to pursue education and employment on the mainland due to the high cost of living in Hawaii. Programs offered by STEMworks™ aim to reduce the number of students leaving the islands by showcasing ways students can help their communities and find fulfilling employment in Hawaii.
STEM Jobs believes in the power of providing opportunities to develop new skills and explore options for life after graduation. That’s why we’ve partnered with the Maui Economic Development Board to bring career resources into Hawaii’s schools andhelp students find opportunities to do what they love.
STEMworks™ and its partners are honored to work together as they create meaningful learning experiences to impact the lives of Hawaiian students today and into the future.
Read on to discover more about the STEMworks™ program, the unique challenges students of Hawaii face, and the incredible STEM training and career opportunities available right here on the islands.
