Stem Advantage

Our Mission

STEM Advantage's mission is to mentor, prepare and inspire young women and underserved communities to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through paid internships, mentorships and scholarships. This 360-degree approach is designed to provide the support needed to keep promising scholars in a STEM program, including the skills and work experience that will assist them in landing their first position after graduation, plus graduate with less student debt.

In 2012 we launched our program at California State University, Dominguez Hills, a highly diverse, urban university that serves the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In 2014 we expanded our program to include students at California State University, Los Angeles, which is also highly diverse.

Our goal "23 by 2023" is to offer our program at all 23 California State University (CSU) campuses by 2023. The CSU is the nation's largest four-year public university system with 23 campuses. The CSU stretches 800 miles from Humboldt in the north to San Diego in the South, and educates approximately 460,000 students.

We selected the CSU as our university partner because the CSU: educates the most ethnically, economically and academically diverse student body in the nation provides more than half of all undergraduate degrees granted to California's Latino, African American and Native American students is the nation's largest four-year public university system; more than a third of CSU students are first generation college students.