CT STEM Academy was established in 2012 as a collaborative program between the Wallingford Youth and Social Services and the Spanish Community of Wallingford (SCOW) with support from the Wallingford Rotary Club and Connecticut Education Association. Our headquarters is currently located just behind the SCOW in our new space. We strive to cultivate innovative enrichment programs targeted for students interested in deepening their knowledge of STEM concepts, placing a special emphasis on gender equity, cultural diversity, and direct family involvement. This partnership was funded through a NASA Summer of Innovation Grant, has served over thousands of families, and over one hundred schools and community organizations throughout Connecticut.  

This innovative enrichment program is designed for students interested in deepening their knowledge of STEM concepts. Our programs place a special emphasis on gender equity, cultural diversity and direct family involvement.  Current, and past, supporters of this program include:  3M, NASA Summer of Innovation Project, Clorox Foundation, AT&T, the Wallingford Education Foundation and the National Education Association Foundation.

Our STEM program sessions are student-centered and based on active problem solving through the engineering design process, while correlating to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Common Core State Standards. STEM learning experiences include robotics and coding challenges centered around NGSS standards, examining NASA based challenges and Career In STEM explorations, as well as soft skills practice in gaining confidence surrounding school based activities and communication with peers. Our programming includes proper staff professional development training through NASA, Ozobot, Careers In STEM, and VEX Code VR. Within the context of these STEM topics, students will are exposed to interdisciplinary concepts which include mathematics, literacy and soft skills.  In addition to these integrated pieces of programming, students use hands-on, kinesthetic, differentiated, and scaffolded learning. Our programming plans have been developed in collaboration with local educators, NASA educational resource staff, Digital Harbor Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland, and faculty at local universities: Central Connecticut State University, Southern Connecticut State University and Albertus Magnus College. 

We have been striving to make an impact on cultural diversity based upon a March 2016 White House Report on STEM education, which called out the need to increase the number of students with STEM degrees to meet the need of increasingly STEM-centric jobs, noting that “addressing bias and expanding opportunities for underrepresented students in STEM” is a national priority. The overarching goal for this STEM initiative is to improve student access to STEM learning by helping educators in high-need communities implement project-based, experiential STEM learning curriculum, both in school and out of school. Our programming is led by certified teachers and community members with a rich range of talents who believe in furthering student understanding of STEM concepts beyond the classroom, with a special focus on direct family engagement, gender equity, engaging girls in STEM, and access to programming for at-risk students and minority populations. Overall, our program dissemination is designed to promote opportunities for young women and engage historically underrepresented populations in STEM, particularly low-income youth, youth of color, and youth who speak Spanish as a first language.