Singapore – AVPN today announced the six grantees of its STEM Fund, a collaborative effort between philanthropic leaders including the Micron Foundation, Lenovo Foundation, XTX Markets, BHP and Chevron. These grantees will receive unrestricted grants from the pool of USD $ 1M to implement a diverse range of solutions and models aimed at improving the STEM outcomes of girls below 18 years in five markets: Singapore, India, Malaysia, Japan and Taiwan.
The six grantees include: Junyi Academy Foundation, Mantra4Change (M4C), NPO Waffle, Penang Science Cluster, Solve Education! and Women’s Organization for Socio-Cultural Awareness.
The unrestricted funding will allow these grantees to build their capacities, develop organisational resilience, innovate and give grantees the flexibility they need to deliver positive impact outcomes. This model of giving is driven by trust and placing outcomes ahead of outputs.
The grantees are focused on solutions that range from empowering girl students to build a scientific attitude through online and hybrid formats of learning STEM curriculum, STEM learning through gamification, STEM career guidance and hands on workshops, age-based STEM programmes and bootcamps, experiential quality education and sparking entrepreneurial opportunities.
“AVPN is a pioneer in our intent to ensure trust-based giving between funders and grantees. Through models like this STEM Fund, we provide a platform that allows the six grantees to focus more on creating impact and improving STEM outcomes for girls in Asia Pacific. And we can only do that by the support of philanthropic leaders and supporters of this fund who are also committed to address the existing power imbalance in philanthropy while trying to scale up impact in making sure more girls can participate and thrive in STEM education and career at the same time.” explained Naina Subberwal Batra, CEO of AVPN.
The six grantees were selected out of 53 evaluated applications. With a strong focus on gender equity in STEM education, the grantees are committed to driving mobility and diversity in STEM by ensuring that girls in underserved and marginalised communities have opportunities to explore STEM learning through a variety of approaches.
“Many girls might not be aware of the opportunities offered in the STEM fields. Their interest is often hindered by persistent stereotyping and a lack of support to sustain their learning motivation. Enabled by the AVPN STEM grant, Solve Education! breaks the stereotype and empowers girls to play active roles in STEM learning. Through creating fun learning programmes targeting marginalised girls, we leverage the power of community building, digital technology, and gamification. Our goal is to support girls in sustaining and succeeding in their learning journey.” Janine Teo, CEO of Solve Education Foundation.
The grantees will leverage technology to deliver their interventions and work closely with governments and schools to ensure an integration and alignment with the current school systems. Additionally, the grantees are working to address the systemic challenges of STEM by working with all key stakeholders that are involved, female students, teachers, families and communities.
“The need is great. In Malaysia, the gender gap in STEM especially in tech and engineering is huge” said Aimy Lee, Chief Operating Officer of Penang Science Cluster. “Access to unrestricted funding will allow Penang Science Cluster to bring sustainable, high impact STEM learning experiences to girls in underserved communities by engaging local stakeholders to work alongside us through mentorship and capacity building. We will be able to be more responsive to the needs of the girls in different target communities to break gender stereotypes, foster inclusion and participation of girls in STEM. Penang Science Cluster is honoured to partner Asia’s #1 social investor network to make this happen.”
For more information, please contact:
| Susie Lim-Kannan Chief Marketing and Communication Officer , AVPN [email protected] +65 6536 1824 |
About AVPN
AVPN is the world’s largest network of Social Investors in Asia, with over 600+ diverse members across 33 markets. Their mission is to close the SDG gaps in Asia, by enabling their members to increase the flow of financial, human, and intellectual capital towards impact. Through sharing knowledge and innovating collaborations between policy makers, family offices, foundations, and the private sector, AVPN improves the effectiveness of capital deployed; bringing to bear the local field needs, regional expertise, and policy insights.
About the Micron Foundation
Since its founding in 1999, the Micron Foundation has contributed over $180 million through philanthropy and people to communities where our team members live and work. The Foundation and Micron’s corporate giving are driven by the Micron Gives organisation with grants, programs and volunteer efforts focused on promoting science and engineering education and addressing basic human needs. To learn more, visit here and follow the Foundation on Twitter @MicronGives.
About XTX Markets
XTX Markets is a leading algorithmic trading firm which partners with institutional clients, counterparties and trading venues globally to deliver liquidity in the equity, FX, fixed income and commodity markets. We seek to automate all aspects of our business while promoting fair and efficient financial markets. Our philanthropy programme has two main priorities: 1) STEM education and careers, 2) maximum impact giving. We donate globally, but with a particular focus in countries where we have offices (UK, US, France, India and Singapore). To learn more about XTX Markets, you can visit here.
About Lenovo Foundation
Lenovo Foundation is Lenovo’s charitable and philanthropic arm, working to strengthen and unite Lenovo’s global philanthropy and business purpose to provide smarter technology for all across all geos and business units. The Foundation invests in advancing STEM Education programs, increasing access to opportunity for diverse populations and empowering employees to improve the lives of global communities. To learn more about the Lenovo Foundation, you can visit here.
About BHP
BHP is a world-leading resources company. We extract and process minerals, oil and gas, with more than 72,000 employees and contractors, primarily in Australia and the Americas. Our products are sold worldwide, with sales and marketing led through Singapore and Houston, United States. Our global headquarters are in Melbourne, Australia. Our corporate purpose is to bring people and resources together to build a better world. To learn more about BHP, you can visit here.
About Chevron
Chevron is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies. As a company of problem solvers, we look to the future of energy with optimism. We provide affordable, reliable, and ever-cleaner energy to people in the Asia-Pacific region that is essential to achieving a more prosperous and sustainable world. We invest in community programs that help advance the UN’s sustainable development goals and strive to empower people to meet their full potential.
Media Contact
Cam Van Ast, Chevron, [email protected] +61 9216 4462
Annex – List of grantees
The six grantees of the funds include:
Women’s Organization for Socio-Cultural Awareness, an organisation that is empowering 7500+ girl students in the conflict-affected community of Sukma in India, by implementing their flagship STEM Programmes, Life Lab, that provides innovative and comprehensive solutions to empower the marginalised girls students with a scientific attitude.
“In India, women make up only 14% of the workforce involved in STEM related fields. This AVPN grant will enable WOSCA – Life Lab take an important first step to Stem the Gap by working with 30 Girls schools, Pan India, with a direct reach of 7500 + girls between grades 6th to 10th. This initiative will be launched with a strategic goal of achieving a 10x multiplier effect in the next 3 years.Overcoming gender biases & stereotypes, now every girl child can go ahead & tell the world – ‘Yes! I TOO CAN STEM’.” Lewitt Somarajan, CEO, Life-Lab Program
Junyi Academy Foundation, a non-profit organisation in Taiwan, that proposes to deliver equal learning opportunities around STEM education to rural and underserved communities in Taiwan through their e-learning platform. The platform will also work at equipping teachers to help students access the content during school hours.
“Junyi Academy Foundation is a nonprofit organisation in Taiwan that leverages technology to provide children with an equitable, quality education, including the right to education for girls in remote areas. Junyi creates opportunities for all children to become lifelong learners by delivering scalable personalised education while cultivating their self-directed learning habits. We believe that education goes beyond knowledge retention but also about learning how to learn, and striving for a better future for both the individual and others in this era of rapid change. And this vision should not be limited by gender, region, or socioeconomic status.” Ray (Kuanwei) Lu, CEO & Chairman at Junyi Academy
NPO Waffle, a Japan-based non profit organisation that provides opportunities for STEM education to high school girls in rural Japan, through a hands-on exposure to technology, meet and engage with role models working in STEM, and offer career guidance to female students that are interested in exploring future opportunities.
“With AVPN support, we will address the gender stereotype of STEM against girls in Japan by delivering Waffle Camp, our one-day bootcamp program, for female and gender minority students. We truly believe that unrestricted funding will enable us to invest not only in the implementation of the program but also in strategizing a scalable plan. The young girls and gender minorities in the countryside are the hidden gems of the Japanese rural economy. They will help closing the gender gap in Japan, which ranks 116th on the 2022 Gender Gap Index.” Sayaka Tanaka, CEO of NPO Waffle.
Penang Science Cluster,an organisation in Malaysia that is working at building a healthy talent pipeline of girls in STEM, in the underserved communities of Malaysia. The intervention will be through an age-based, hands-on approach to sustain interest in science and technology programs and drive active participation in STEM for girl students from the age of 10 years and onwards.
“The need is great. In Malaysia, the gender gap in STEM especially in tech and engineering is huge. Access to unrestricted funding will allow Penang Science Cluster to bring high impact STEM learning experiences to girls in underserved communities, and make it sustainable through engaging local stakeholders to work alongside us through mentorship and capacity building. This unrestricted funding will enable us to be more responsive to the needs of the girls in different target communities to break gender stereotypes and foster inclusion and participation of girls in STEM. Penang Science Cluster is honoured to partner Asia’s #1 social investor network to make this happen.” Aimy Lee, Chief Operating Officer of Penang Science Cluster.
Solve Education!,a non-profit organisation based in Singapore is committed to creating systems and technologies which engage girls and develop their STEM skills through a low-end technology, highly accessible learning platform where students can learn individually or compete to win real-life learning prizes with their friends within the community. To complement the digital learning, Solve Education! will offer real-life supplementary activities such as conducting group learning competitions or challenges that would help students improve their ownership of the community and mitigate risk of students feeling isolated. This intervention is proposed to impact girl students in marginalised communities in Singapore, Malaysia and India.
“Many girls might not be aware of the opportunities offered in the STEM fields. Their interest is often hindered by persistent stereotyping and a lack of support to sustain their learning motivation. Enabled by the AVPN STEM grant, Solve Education! breaks the stereotype and empowers girls to play active roles in STEM learning. Through creating fun learning programmes targeting marginalised girls, we leverage the power of community building, digital technology, and gamification. Our goal is to support girls in sustaining and succeeding in their learning journey.” Janine Teo, CEO of Solve Education Foundation.
Mantra4Change (M4C), is an India based non-profit driving a holistic approach towards transforming STEM learning in schools through their Tinkering labs for STEM, that provides students access to STEM subjects through an experiential activity-based approach. Their intervention is designed for Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs) in India to ensure success of marginalised girls in STEM, by focusing on skill development of girls for employability or pursuing entrepreneurial aspirations.
“Mantra4Change envisions that every child gets an enabling learning environment. We aim to achieve this by working with the public education system in India. A quality STEM program helps in furthering our endeavours by ensuring an activity-based learning environment, one that promotes investigation, and discovery, resulting in enhanced learning outcomes and encouraging students to take things apart, play with technology, and invent prototypes. We imagine a 3-tiered outcome through this STEM fund eventually leading to a STEM movement: 1) Developing an excellent STEM curriculum integrated into the state board curriculum. This will help us ensure quality STEM education reaching 15,000 Girls in residential schools; 2) Developing an approach that could act as a blueprint for other residential schools in India. There are more than 4000 residential schools in the country which are serving people from backward communities such as Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Class etc; 3) Developing a model of Public Private partnership for STEM education in public schools, which could potentially look like a Development Impact bond for STEM.” Rucha Pande, COO at Mantra4Change.
