High School Girls Make a Difference at the Palatine Jaycees Fest
What a way to spend the 4th of July weekend by meeting and greeting people at the Palatine Jaycees Hometown Fest. Our Mission:MathMinds’s volunteer Mentors braved the hot weather and spent time speaking with the wonderful folks that stopped by our booth.
Mentors in action serving the community. Left to Right: Ruby Arun, Shyla Misener, and Allison DiGangi
Mission:MathMinds is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving math literacy for middle school and high school girls. Our unique Mentor-Mentee system is the foundation for younger girls to be mentored by older girls creating an environment of lifelong learning and relationships. It is also an opportunity for girls to contribute to their schools, communities, and the nation and secure service hours, which is our unique concept. Mission:MathMinds has built over 100 Mentor-Mentee relationships and seen incredible progress in their attitude towards learning math.
“We teach math in a contrarian approach against rote learning which creates anxiety towards math, especially for girls. Our aim is to amplify enthusiasm for math," says Ruby Arun, CEO and Founder.
At our booth, we interacted with over 150 people from our community passing out flyers and freebies to children. Our Mentors met a diverse group of people at the fest: individuals who were also working to close the STEM gender gap as well as families who were looking for a program like Mission:MathMinds for their daughters. Parents were excited that our program is free of cost and many individuals were inspired by our organization’s mission to educate girls in math.
The weeks prior to the event included a lot of planning and effort for Mission:MathMinds booth. Unbeknownst to what would attract people, we offered freebies such as popsicles, scented erasers, and stuffed animals. Crowds of families that were on their way to the carnival showed interest in the Mission:MathMinds booth and stopped to learn more.
“The response we got from parents was amazing because they found our organization perfect for their daughters to create enthusiasm for learning math,” says Megan Reyes, Vice President.
Studies done by the University of Chicago suggest that boys and girls show no differences in math abilities at young ages which supports the idea that they are equally capable. Mission:MathMinds takes a contrarian approach to teaching math, where girls are building confidence in math alongside our Mentors.
