DIY Girls - Empowering the Next Generation of STEM Leaders

At DIY Girls, young people aren’t just learning about technology — they’re building it.

With support from the Glenn W. Bailey Foundation, DIY Girls served 72 girls and gender-expansive youth across four high school campuses in the Northeast San Fernando Valley during the 2024–2025 school year.

Through hands-on STEAM programming, students gained real technical skills, built confidence, and began to see themselves as future leaders in STEM fields.

Learning by Doing

This year marked the third year of DIY Girls’ four-year high school curriculum. Students tackled increasingly advanced engineering and technology projects that combined coding, electronics, 3D design, hardware assembly, and user-centered design.

In the fall, participants:

• Built LED light-up headbands to explore circuitry

• Designed and 3D-printed personalized phone holders

• Learned coding through Arduino and app-controlled lighting projects

By spring, students completed an impressive capstone project: a fully functional, Arduino-based Stackable Bluetooth Speaker, complete with music-reactive disco lighting

These aren’t simulations — they are real-world engineering experiences.

Measurable Growth

The results speak for themselves:

• 86% want to continue participating in engineering and technology activities

• 75% believe they can succeed in a STEM career

• 97% say they try to learn from mistakes

• 89% feel comfortable asking for help when solving problems

Beyond the numbers, students shared how the program changed them. Many described increased confidence, greater comfort speaking up, and discovering that intimidating fields like engineering are within reach.

One student shared that before the program, she struggled to speak in unfamiliar groups — now she feels confident pushing past that fear. Another described DIY Girls as her first truly welcoming exposure to engineering

Building for the Future

DIY Girls recently completed development of the fourth and final year of its in-house high school curriculum and is implementing it this academic year

New projects will continue blending hardware, software, and design, culminating in an Arduino-powered “LumaRise Alarm Clock” capstone project.

To ensure long-term sustainability, the organization has taken a thoughtful, strategic approach — pausing expansion to focus on program quality, staff capacity, and strong fiscal management

With consistent board support, a successful annual benefit event, and diversified fundraising efforts, DIY Girls is building a stable foundation for continued growth.

We are proud to support organizations like DIY Girls that not only teach technical skills, but also help young people build confidence, resilience, and belief in their own potential.

This is how opportunity expands — one project, one student, one future at a time.