STEM camp prepares young women for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics with focus on climate change

Groups of teenage girls recently ventured around Drexel University, generating ideas that could germinate well beyond the campus – or even their generation. Approaching different buildings, the budding researchers spent the last week of July accessing ways the college’s facilities could increase energy efficiency. The Energy Innovation Challenge was just one assignment comprising Philadelphia’s inaugural STEM Innovation Leadership Academy, a week-long camp hosted by the Exelon Foundation through its commitment to the United Nations HeForShe initiative. The solidarity campaign founded in 2014 encourages men to serve as agents for gender equality across the globe. Drawing more than 60 girls from the Philadelphia region, including students of the Girard Academic Music Program, dozens of 16- to 19-year-old young women convened at Drexel from July 21-26 to champion their own movement toward gender equality – preparing for careers in the science, technology and engineering fields.