STEM Unity
Giving research experience to equity-deserving undergraduate STEM students
support our giving day fund
Giving Day runs from April 2 to April 16 where individual donations will be matched by UCalgary up to $2,500 while funds last.
Note that the link will not be live until 7 AM on April 2, 2025 when Giving Day begins.
We need your help!
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As Canada’s need for STEM talent continues to grow, research shows that providing mentorship and support for members of underrepresented communities increases their retention rates in STEM fields.
In 2024, the University of Calgary’s Chemists for Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity (CIDE) proudly launched STEM Unity. This university-wide program offers resources, mentorship, and hands-on research experience for equity-deserving undergraduate STEM students – including those who identify as women, persons with disabilities, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and/or people of colour), first-generation students, low-income, neurodiverse, and 2SLGBTQ+).
This year, the UCalgary Faculty of Science and Department of Chemistry have endorsed STEM Unity as a featured fund in the upcoming Giving Day campaign, which runs from April 2 to April 16. During this time, individual donations will be matched up to $2,500 while funds last. Matching funds disappear fast, so early donations help maximize the impact of this important program.
Building on last year’s momentum
With a successful Giving Day fundraiser in 2024, we launched the STEM Unity Experience in August 2024. The STEM Unity Experience enabled 18 first-, second- and third-year undergraduate students selected from over 200 applicants to shadow researchers and participate in career and professional development workshops and networking activities organized by CIDE. With participants reporting that the STEM Unity Experience was highly valuable, our goal this year is to expand it and offer it to more equity-deserving students – encouraging their retention and participation in STEM.
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Expanding to include hands-on research with the STEM Unity Internship
This year, we are also aiming to coordinate a paid eight-week part-time STEM Unity Internship. This internship would allow upper-year undergraduate students who do not have previous research experience to conduct scientific research in participating STEM departments’ laboratories at UCalgary. To successfully offer these programs, we have budgeted $250 per student for STEM Unity Experience and $3,000 per student for STEM Unity Internship to cover costs associated with activities, workshops, materials, and their pay.
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Your support makes it possible
STEM Unity can only be sustainable and meet its full potential through gracious contributions from donors like you. On the morning of April 2, a Giving Day link will allow each donation to be matched up to $2,500 while funds last. If you can support STEM Unity, we would be pleased to mail you this link as soon as it goes live – just let us know via email at cide@ucalgary.ca, and we’ll add you to our outreach list.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you may have. On behalf of the entire CIDE and STEM Unity committee, thank you for taking the time to consider supporting our program!
Stem unity experience 2024:
At the end of 2023, we started developing STEM Unity, an innovative new initiative to dismantle barriers and promote inclusivity and a sense of belonging among STEM undergraduate students from equity-deserving and under-represented groups who are passionate about science and interested in research. This program became one of the most popular initiatives selected by the Faculty of Science to be part of UCalgary Giving Days 2024, and alongside our own fundraising, we were able to launch the program with a successful summer pilot program, STEM Unity Experience, in August 2024. In this program, 18 undergraduate students from underrepresented groups in various STEM fields were selected with EDIA considerations in mind to experience research for two weeks in August through laboratory shadowing, complemented by unique graduate student and postdoc-led workshops and opportunities to engage in discussions with peers, grads, faculty and industry about EDIA, STEM, professional development, and academia. Organizers and participants included students and postdocs from the Faculties of Science, Kinesiology, Schulich School of Engineering, and the Cumming School of Medicine. Altogether, STEM Unity provided a unique opportunity for all those involved, including our donors, mentors, volunteers, and participants, to work together to connect and build a welcoming, diverse, and inclusive environment together. We want to extend a huge thank you to our donors, graduate student and postdoctoral scholar mentors, panellists, STEM Unity Experience and workshop coordinators, and UCalgary GSA Quality Money, we could not have run this program without you! Lastly, thank you to our students for being so engaged throughout the program! This important program will continue to be developed and expanded in coming years, we look forward to offering STEM Unity again in Summer 2025!
