Niyati Kottury and Nirav Kottury, tenth 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. 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, a student led non-profit in early 2019.
On November 21st 2020, STEMStart partnered with RIVA solutions, Inc. and conducted a STEM Skills Workshop virtually for high school students across five states in United States. RIVA Solutions is a local Information technology (IT) Services provider to the United States Federal Government in the areas of Management Consulting, STEM, Cyber, AI, and Robotic Process Automation. In this two hour session event, participating students had an opportunity to learn STEM resume building skills and acquired the skills to ace an STEM internship/job interview under the guidance of experienced IT professionals from RIVA team. Students had an active engagement in learning what to do and what not to do in getting an internship/job offer from a prospective employer. High school students from 10 high schools in Loudoun and Fairfax Counties along with students from Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Texas attended this STEM Skills workshop.