Members of Ho'omana Foundation have been working as a volunteer advocate for women and minority participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs for over 15 years. STEM careers tend to be significantly more lucrative than non-STEM jobs, with women and minorities in STEM earning as much as 30 percent more than women and minorities in all other fields. Closing the gender and minority gap in STEM will help to close gender and minority gaps in income.
We believe that increasing STEM participation must begin as early as possible and has focused much of our efforts on outreach programs for youth. The primary goal of outreach is to spark an initial interest in STEM courses or majors, particularly for students underrepresented in these fields. Outreach programs aim to erase STEM stereotypes and fill the information gap by exposing students at a young age to STEM occupations and how their degrees might translate to careers.
Ho’omana Foundation has a strong belief that in order to be successful, we have to foster interest in science and engineering among native Hawaiian youth, to make the work climate more friendly to Hawaiian's, and to establish strong networks on which Hawaiian's can rely.