National Girls Collaborative Project Comes to New Mexico!

The vision of the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) is to bring together organizations throughout the United States that are committed to informing and encouraging girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The NGCP began in 2002 as the Northwest Girls Collaborative Project through funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). In 2004, NSF awarded additional funding to replicate the NGCP model. To date, 22 Collaboratives, serving 34 states, have been established as a part of the NGCP, facilitating collaboration between more than 8,800 organizations serving more than 5.3 million girls.

In April 2011, the National Girls Collaborative Project received funding from the National Science Foundation to reach additional states identified as high priority areas and new Collaboratives are beginning to organize. New Mexico was identified in the proposal as a high priority area and Young Women in Computing (YWiC) has been approved to host Collaborative activities as the Convening Organization in New Mexico.

The structure of NGCP Collaboratives consists of a Convening Organization and a Collaborative Leadership Team. The Convening Organization works with the Leadership Team to carry out the activities of the Collaborative. The Leadership Team includes members of organizations that are also invested in girls in STEM-CS and are able to contribute to the project's success.

NMNWSE member Cheri Burch was appointed as chair of the NMNWSE Ad-Hoc Comittee to follow NGCP activities and coordinate with NMNWSE efforts as appropriate. Cheri will be representing NMNWSE on the NCGP Collaborative Leadership Team, allowing NMNWSE the opportunity to provide statewide leadership in initiating and expanding STEM-CS activity in New Mexico, as well as the opportunity to be a recognized partner in a National Science Foundation grant. You can contact Cheri via the Board email, or directly at ctburch@unm.edu.