“We Make the Village” - Inspiring STEM Among Young Girls and the Power of Creative Engineering Education in Action

In this Innovative Practice Full paper, we use an autoethnographic approach to describe first-hand the experiences and learnings from launching an initiative to help school children, especially girls, familiarize themselves with STEM and cybersecurity. The primary authors and ethnographers are founders of STEM initiatives for young learners. One is a recent high school graduate who is now majoring in an engineering field as a college freshman and continues mentoring the program, and two others are at sophomore and junior levels in high school, currently leading these initiatives. With the help of three engineering educators, they use their individual self-narratives to develop a deeper understanding of the broad question of how STEM-related interactions with peers helped develop their own commitment to the professions of engineering and education. It is hoped that this work will be of value to fellow engineering professionals, minority engineering networks, as well as administrators and students, as we introspect, reflect, and design programs to help better prepare girls for careers in STEM and engineering.