The Montana Girls STEM Collaborative seeks to unite and support educators, parents, professionals and other champions of STEM so we can engage and inspire the next generation!
In this issue:
The Montana Girls STEM Collaborative, in collaboration with the National Girls Collaborative and Lyda Hill Philanthropies, is excited to offer mini grants to support projects involving the IF/THEN Collection. Grants will range in amount from $500-$1000 and will support a national effort to provide authentic materials encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers. 

About the Collection (From the website):
https://www.ifthencollection.org
The IF/THEN® Collection is the largest free resource of its kind dedicated to increasing access to authentic and relatable images of real women in STEM.

The Collection is part of the IF/THEN® Initiative, a national effort sponsored by Lyda Hill Philanthropies® to inspire young girls to pursue STEM careers while creating a culture shift in how the world perceives women in STEM.  The Collection features 125 female STEM innovators selected by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Lyda Hill Philanthropies® to be AAAS IF/THEN® Ambassadors, all serving as high-profile role models for girls.

How can you use this opportunity? 
Example projects include (but are not limited to): Redesign a brochure, website, or other promotional materials to showcase more women in STEM; create/print/distribute on-site signage, posters, etc.; use the IF/THEN® Gender Representation Toolkit to help your institution collect data on the representation of gender in your physical and digital spaces; use activity sheets and educator lessons for camps or programs; use videos as a lesson hook. (See more ideas at https://www.ifthencollection.org/educators#one-stop)


*Preference will go to Montana organizations that are reaching middle school girls, particularly girls from populations typically under-represented in STEM. However, we hope to distribute funds to a wide variety of organizations and encourage all to apply.

Mini-Grant Timeline
Application Deadline: Wednesday, September 15th
Award Notification: Tuesday, September 21st
Project Duration: October 1st-December 10th
Final Report Due: December 31st

Questions? Please contact MGSC Intern, Sierra Fisher-Dykman sfisherdykman@gmail.com
About the Montana Girls STEM Collaborative
The Montana Girls STEM Collaborative was founded as an outreach program of Montana NSF EPSCoR and has co-leaders at Montana State University and the University of Montana as well as volunteer board members across the state. This material is based upon work supported in part by the National Science Foundation EPSCoR Cooperative Agreement OIA-1757351. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Suzi Taylor
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT
(406) 994-7476
Jessie Herbert
University of Montana
Missoula, MT
(406) 243-4828