All About Eureka!

Our Summer STEM/College Readiness Program at UMass Amherst

To Learn More

Lesly Roman
Eureka! Middle School Director
lroman@girlsincvalley.org
413-887-9521

Dee Ward
Associate Executive Director
dward@girlsincvalley.org
413-539-4050

The Basics

Eureka! is our intensive, five-year STEM-based program for rising 8th graders all the way to their senior year in high school. The Eureka! “scholars” as we call them, study with professors on campus at UMass in their classrooms and labs, out in the field and beyond. The program also builds skills and confidence by incorporating physical fitness, personal development, and college and career readiness. It’s a “whole-student” approach, in other words, and the program’s impact accumulates each year. Eureka! changes lives, emboldens youth, and builds futures.

Our Eureka! program:

Broadens scholars’ academic and career interests

Encourages enrollment in advanced math and science courses

Promotes positive risk-taking

Helps scholars’ develop mentorships and professional networks

Offers opportunities

to discover worlds that can lead to careers in the science, technology, humanities, health fields and beyond

Focuses on college readiness

Our Eureka! grads have gone on to UMass, Clark University, Assumption College, Sarah Lawrence College, Bay Path University and more.

Some Eureka! Curriculum Highlights

Our scholars learned about tree climbing by way of trigonometry, vectors, friction, and other concepts from Newtonian mechanics. One day, Eureka! scholars rocked out on a geological tour of the UMass campus. They helped gather and analyze data for the breast cancer research lab at UMass.

Timeline

See how each of the five Eureka! years unfold.

Eureka! is a summer program but it also takes place on select Saturdays during the school year, too. As the scholars climb from grade to grade, so the Eureka! experience deepens, too.

First Year

Eureka! Rookies (8th Graders)

Attend 4 weeks of STEM labs and workshops on-campus at UMass Amherst

Join in sports and other personal development activities

Participate in our Girls Inc. curriculum – including leadership and personal development, healthy relationships and college and career exploration

Attend activities, special events, celebrations, field trips throughout the school year. (One year, on a trip to Boston they got a behind-the-scenes tour of Fenway Park and checked out the supercomputer at Boston’s Markley Group data center facility!)

Second Year

Eureka! Vets (9th Graders)

Attend 4 weeks of STEM labs and workshops on-campus at UMass Amherst

Join in on sports and other personal development activities

Engage in the Girls Inc. curriculum – including leadership and personal development, healthy relationships and college and career exploration

Attend activities, special events, celebrations, field trips throughout the school year

Third Year

Eureka! Midways (10th Graders)

Participate in a 4-week summer community action project (recently, the scholars did a Period Awareness Project – discussing, organizing, and bringing awareness to issues around access to menstrual products)

Attend college and career visits

Receive personal and career development workshops

Attend monthly meetings during the school year

Fourth Year

Eureka! Externs (11th Graders)

Participate in a 4-week paid “externship” at local organizations (such as Holyoke Codes, New England Public Media, and more)

Attend job readiness training

Go on college tours (in the Valley, Worcester, Boston, and New York City)

Take part in a mentoring relationship to support the college application process

Attend college and career readiness programs throughout the school year

Fifth Year

Eureka! Graduates (12th Graders)

Participate in a one-credit college course and begin working on their college transcript