All About Eureka!
Our Summer STEM/College Readiness Program at UMass Amherst
Our Summer STEM/College Readiness Program at UMass Amherst
Lesly Roman
Eureka! Middle School Director
lroman@girlsincvalley.org
413-887-9521
Dee Ward
Associate Executive Director
dward@girlsincvalley.org
413-539-4050
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:
to discover worlds that can lead to careers in the science, technology, humanities, health fields and beyond
Our Eureka! grads have gone on to UMass, Clark University, Assumption College, Sarah Lawrence College, Bay Path University and more.
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.
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.
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!)
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
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
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
Participate in a one-credit college course and begin working on their college transcript
Receive personal and career development workshops
Go on college tours
Take part in a mentoring relationship to support the college application process
Attend college and career readiness programs throughout the school year
We are excited to collaborate with UMASS Amherst and Bay Path University for STEM experiences and for post-secondary readiness activities and opportunities.
Eureka! Scholars must submit an application and take part in an information meeting or an interview. Applications are reviewed each spring for summer enrollment. Every summer we enroll rookies and vets (scholars entering into 8th and 9th grade (who are currently 7th and 8th graders).