Niyati Kottury and Nirav Kottury, rising 10th graders from Briar Woods High School and Academies of Loudoun, and founders of STEMStart, a 501 C (3) non-profit organization with the mission to close the STEM gap by providing students with STEM experiences as early as elementary school. Deloitte Consulting (2018) predicts that 3.5M STEM jobs in the US will go unfilled due to shortage of high school graduates with STEM skills. Factors such as the fundamental skills gap, the belief gap, the geographic gap, the demographic gap, and the post-secondary education skills gap, are the main drivers behind the STEM gap. Knowing that the STEM skills gap is a nationwide problem, Niyati and Nirav Kottury have decided to be change agents by being part of the solution and establishing STEMStart in early 2019.
With their experience in organizing 6 afterschool clubs in middle school, they launched the STEMStart Innovation Summit on 12/06/19, inviting students from 13 high schools and developing innovative solutions in addressing the problem of closing the STEM gap. Many of these solutions are reviewed with local schools, community leaders, and non-profit organizations in gaining partnerships towards implementation. STEMStart believes that STEM learning opportunities are like charging stations that power up students’ learning. If we increase the number of STEM charging stations in students’ environments, we will see more interest and fluency in STEM. STEMStart firmly believes that students from economically disadvantaged communities play a pivotal role in closing the STEM gap. STEMStart focuses its energy and efforts in closing the STEM gap by actively working with volunteers across Loudoun County, Virginia, and the United States in serving the economically disadvantaged students.
Due to unprecedented times that Loudoun County and other communities are currently facing with COVID-19, Niyati and Nirav became academic coaches, offering free tutoring help in math and science with the organization UPchieve (https://www.stemstart.org/upcheive-partnership). STEMStart also partnered with UPchieve in offering free math, science and college counseling services in the underserved areas with campaigns nation-wide.
STEMStart collaborated with Dr. George Pantalos and his team from the University of Louisville to develop with face mask and crown 3D printable designs that can be printed with generic PLA materials approved by medical professionals. By partnering with the Loudoun County Public Library Services Office, they offered resources to 3D-print 250+ Personal Protective Equipment (face masks and crowns) for the Loudoun County medical professionals. Also, STEMStart offered resources to the Loudoun County Library Foundation to manufacture 200+ fabric-based face masks for the county library staff to use to operate safely.
