by Maggie Dahn, Lora Cawelti, Seth Corrigan, Mizuko Ito, and Kylie Peppler (University of California, Irvine) in collaboration with Heather White, Vice President of Program Impact at Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove
In the following case study, we describe STEM programming at Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove (BGCGG) with a focus on their mentorship model and current program offerings as well as the iterative development of tools to better tailor their programs to youth STEM interests. We begin by describing the afterschool context and their mentorship model. We frame the key problems of practice around strategic needs for youth-centered program development and better understanding of youth interests before describing the development of new tools to support youth interest matching. We end with next steps and future directions for BGCGG and other organizations aiming to more meaningfully understand and respond to youth STEM interests.
Network and program leaders make connections for young people at every level of the system. Learning from on-the-ground program-level partners can help us to better understand the ways connection strategies are implemented with youth, as well as consider leaders’ perceptions of their impact. As part of their approach, BGCGG leverages the institutional knowledge and relationships STEM specialists build with their members. The school-based programs for BGCGG are supported by STEM specialists like Mary Nguyen, who has been with the organization for two years. To her, “science always made sense,” and she finds her position with BGCGG “very rewarding” because she loves “seeing the light bulbs go off in a kid’s head” and loves seeing it “click” for the staff members she trains and supports. Her role requires collaboration with leaders at other nonprofit organizations (i.e., Girls Inc., 4-H) to support training and facilitation of the STEM programming at their respective sites. She explained that they most often try to choose programming that is informative, low-cost, and that members can connect with their families at home.
BGCGG is part of Imagine Science, a collaboration between leading youth organizations that aims to support high-quality STEM programming.
Network and program leaders make connections for young people at every level of the system. Learning from on-the-ground program-level partners can help us to better understand the ways connection strategies are implemented with youth, as well as consider leaders’ perceptions of their impact. As part of their approach, BGCGG leverages the institutional knowledge and relationships STEM specialists build with their members. The school-based programs for BGCGG are supported by STEM specialists like Mary Nguyen, who has been with the organization for two years. To her, “science always made sense,” and she finds her position with BGCGG “very rewarding” because she loves “seeing the light bulbs go off in a kid’s head” and loves seeing it “click” for the staff members she trains and supports.
Her role requires collaboration with leaders at other nonprofit organizations (i.e., Girls Inc., 4-H) to support training and facilitation of the STEM programming at their respective sites. She explained that they most often try to choose programming that is informative, low-cost, and that members can connect with their families at home.
BGCGG is part of Imagine Science, a collaboration between leading youth organizations that aims to support high-quality STEM programming. Within the Imagine Science initiative, BGCGG has several STEM-specific programs. For example, they offer Sphero Robotics, in which younger members learn how to use block code and older members learn some text code (e.g., JavaScript). In this program, they explore potential careers in STEM such as video game development and robotics engineering. Other programs include Water Guardians, which focuses on the water cycle and explores career pathways like marine engineering and marine biology. A third program is called Power Up!, in which members learn about alternative energies through hands-on projects. A final program, Space Quest, allows members to study topics related to space travel and aerospace engineering.
The options within the BGCGG Imagine Science programming support their members in connecting to their STEM interests through high-quality STEM program offerings (Bergman and McDaniel 2023). As part of the continued work to support STEM programming, Mary will mentor new STEM facilitators and support the development of near-peer mentorship, as well as explore a “Teens as Teachers” program through BGCGG’s partnership with Imagine Science. An emphasis on interest and career development, as well as developing a STEM identity through mentorship and near-peer mentorship, will continue to be an important part of their work.
Mary explained that one barrier to supporting youth in STEM is that though the site leaders were often excited about the STEM opportunities they provided, the young people at programs didn’t always share the same level of enthusiasm, so getting members interested in the activities could prove challenging. Mary described the strategy of intentionally inviting youth into the space to explore with a familiar toy such as Legos, and then progressing to engage with an activity such as coding, so they come to realize they can move the Legos. She explained in reference to a member’s thought process, “[With] LEGOs first, it’s a toy I have at home. I could do this, and then they could make the connection of like, Oh, my God! I can make it move. There are more things that we could do with it and just build it. Wow!”
Mentoring and supporting interest development helps connect youth to available opportunities to further those interests (e.g., robotics curriculum, hacking competitions), as well as real world opportunities that could turn those interests into future career pathways. STEM specialists and site leaders also support BGCGG members in social and emotional ways, as one member described: “it feels like you’re talking to a person with their own life and their own feelings versus like just another figure to tell you what to do and what not to do. And it also just like it really helps make me want to come here because they’re really good people.” One BGCGG member described the importance of connecting to leaders like Mary at BGCGG: “When you come to Boys & Girls Club, you just like feel more like excited because you could like talk to someone and you can also get help and if you’re like struggling like with school work or like how you’re doing at school, just talk to them and they could just help you out, just provide the safer environment for people.”
Within the Imagine Science initiative, BGCGG has several STEM-specific programs. For example, they offer Sphero Robotics, in which younger members learn how to use block code and older members learn some text code (e.g., JavaScript). In this program, they explore potential careers in STEM such as video game development and robotics engineering. Other programs include Water Guardians, which focuses on the water cycle and explores career pathways like marine engineering and marine biology. A third program is called Power Up!, in which members learn about alternative energies through hands-on projects. A final program, Space Quest, allows members to study topics related to space travel and aerospace engineering.
The options within the BGCGG Imagine Science programming support their members in connecting to their STEM interests through high-quality STEM program offerings (Bergman and McDaniel 2023). As part of the continued work to support STEM programming, Mary will mentor new STEM facilitators and support the development of near-peer mentorship, as well as explore a “Teens as Teachers” program through BGCGG’s partnership with Imagine Science. An emphasis on interest and career development, as well as developing a STEM identity through mentorship and near-peer mentorship, will continue to be an important part of their work.
Mary explained that one barrier to supporting youth in STEM is that though the site leaders were often excited about the STEM opportunities they provided, the young people at programs didn’t always share the same level of enthusiasm, so getting members interested in the activities could prove challenging. Mary described the strategy of intentionally inviting youth into the space to explore with a familiar toy such as Legos, and then progressing to engage with an activity such as coding, so they come to realize they can move the Legos. She explained in reference to a member’s thought process, “[With] LEGOs first, it’s a toy I have at home. I could do this, and then they could make the connection of like, Oh, my God! I can make it move. There are more things that we could do with it and just build it. Wow!”
Mentoring and supporting interest development helps connect youth to available opportunities to further those interests (e.g., robotics curriculum, hacking competitions), as well as real world opportunities that could turn those interests into future career pathways. STEM specialists and site leaders also support BGCGG members in social and emotional ways, as one member described: “it feels like you’re talking to a person with their own life and their own feelings versus like just another figure to tell you what to do and what not to do. And it also just like it really helps make me want to come here because they’re really good people.” One BGCGG member described the importance of connecting to leaders like Mary at BGCGG: “When you come to Boys & Girls Club, you just like feel more like excited because you could like talk to someone and you can also get help and if you’re like struggling like with school work or like how you’re doing at school, just talk to them and they could just help you out, just provide the safer environment for people.”
At BGCGG, site leaders and STEM specialists support interest development. Interest-driven learning can support young people in finding experiences aligned with their interests and passions and create pathways to new opportunities. Though interest-driven learning has potential for supporting learning, young people sometimes need support in connecting their interests to opportunities. Young people can signal their interests in open-ended ways or through direct bids for support (Ching et al. 2018).
Active in more than 50 sites across the city of Garden Grove in Orange County, California, BGCGG is the primary after school provider for the Garden Grove Unified School District, the 14th largest school district in the state. While they have a central clubhouse location, most of the organization’s activities and programs happen at elementary, intermediate, and high school sites across the district boundaries in Garden Grove and six surrounding cities. For a multi-city organization like BGCGG, site-based teams are a key component of success because they implement programming on the ground with their members. (Across Boys & Girls Clubs, they call youth with whom they work their members). Additionally, though the school sites operate in physically different locations, Heather White, the Vice President of Program Impact at BGCGG, explained it is critical to integrate their strategy and make connections across sites to support learning for all their members. High-quality, sustained program participation is the goal, because this allows BGCGG to make the most transformative impact across the district. They have found, for example, that there is not a high return engagement rate for young people attending one-off trainings and field trips. Sustainability is a key program goal across the organization and remains top of mind in strategy and program design.
Typically, in the BGCGG programs, their members come to participate after the school day ends. During this afterschool time, they first complete homework before moving to an enrichment component during which they can connect to and develop their STEM interests through various program offerings, and finally, they end the day with a snack and socializing. Some members begin walking home after this time (i.e., before it gets dark out), but there is also additional programming that runs until 6pm during a time they call Teen Center. Though in reality, youth are often catching up on homework before heading home, this period presents a more open-ended possibility space for members to further pursue interest-based activities and learning opportunities.
Broadly, the key problems of practice around which Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove are designing in an attempt to better connect STEM learning opportunities to the young people they serve are: a) a need to better understand the landscape of current STEM initiatives with their partners and local resources, so they can build intentionality into their program partnerships; b) a need to increase teen programs, especially supporting elementary to middle school programming transitions; and c) a need to develop workforce programs for high school teens, as well as young adult BGCGG staff. A common thread in designing around these problems of practice is the need to better understand and develop youth interests so they can match these emerging STEM-specific interests with available resources and opportunities.
High quality out-of–school-time (OST) learning supports young people in their interest development through differentiated mentoring, and by offering learning experiences that support them in developing their interests and identities simultaneously. That is, through experiences particular to their interests, young people begin to see themselves as people who could be successful in STEM-related pursuits. Figuring how to identify, nurture, and strategically tap into those interests, however, is a challenging task. Heather described this conundrum in the following way: “Where I get stuck is that I don’t know what they know and what they don’t know so if I ask, what are you interested in? That’s too broad. So I guess giving them enough information without pigeonholing them too much either.”
Like many OST organizations, BGCGG hopes to keep their members engaged and support their development and thriving in a positive direction. However, the strategic matching of young people with the available STEM opportunities does not always present a clear pathway toward these goals.
Broadly, the key problems of practice around which Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove are designing in an attempt to better connect STEM learning opportunities to the young people they serve are: a) a need to better understand the landscape of current STEM initiatives with their partners and local resources, so they can build intentionality into their program partnerships; b) a need to increase teen programs, especially supporting elementary to middle school programming transitions; and c) a need to develop workforce programs for high school teens, as well as young adult BGCGG staff. A common thread in designing around these problems of practice is the need to better understand and develop youth interests so they can match these emerging STEM-specific interests with available resources and opportunities.
High quality out-of–school-time (OST) learning supports young people in their interest development through differentiated mentoring, and by offering learning experiences that support them in developing their interests and identities simultaneously. That is, through experiences particular to their interests, young people begin to see themselves as people who could be successful in STEM-related pursuits.
Figuring how to identify, nurture, and strategically tap into those interests, however, is a challenging task. Heather described this conundrum in the following way: “Where I get stuck is that I don’t know what they know and what they don’t know so if I ask, what are you interested in? That’s too broad. So I guess giving them enough information without pigeonholing them too much either.”
Like many OST organizations, BGCGG hopes to keep their members engaged and support their development and thriving in a positive direction. However, the strategic matching of young people with the available STEM opportunities does not always present a clear pathway toward these goals. Prior to a concentrated focus on making connections, BGCGG approached STEM interest development and providing STEM career and entrepreneurship opportunities in a few different ways. First, BGCGG would permit funders and local industry partners to offer one-off workshop opportunities as well as field trips to support the development of STEM-related career interests. Additionally, they made connections to a computer science certification program at a local community college and would regularly tap board members and funders to help them make program connections to support career development. Though these efforts to make connections between STEM interests and career development existed at BGCGG, they were not necessarily top of mind or strategic in terms of leveraging strategies for the highest impact. That is, there was little intentional support for the connection-making between STEM interests, program offerings, and additional opportunities.
Prior to a concentrated focus on making connections, BGCGG approached STEM interest development and providing STEM career and entrepreneurship opportunities in a few different ways. First, BGCGG would permit funders and local industry partners to offer one-off workshop opportunities as well as field trips to support the development of STEM-related career interests. Additionally, they made connections to a computer science certification program at a local community college and would regularly tap board members and funders to help them make program connections to support career development. Though these efforts to make connections between STEM interests and career development existed at BGCGG, they were not necessarily top of mind or strategic in terms of leveraging strategies for the highest impact. That is, there was little intentional support for the connection-making between STEM interests, program offerings, and additional opportunities.
Youth Personas Development
One tool co-developed between researchers and organization leaders as part of our making connections project is a persona, or a fictional youth profile that illustrates common attitudes and characteristics of participants in out-of-school time programs. Personas are often used by designers who create products and design for user experience on technology platforms. In our case, we co-developed three personas based on youth focus groups and program leader interviews within the Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove. The three personas included Group A – confident, high achieving, and STEM interested youth; Group B – STEM curious youth who are also interested in another domain like sports, arts, and/or friends; and finally, Group C – youth who have felt excluded from STEM spaces because of past experiences. BGCGG has begun using the STEM youth personas with their STEM specialists and will begin more formally using them to support program design during professional development in Spring 2025.
Interest Survey Development and Iteration to Support STEM Connections
A leading hypothesis of the making connections work in regard to interest survey development is that tracking interests over time and finding ways to operationalize those interests, as well as connect them to opportunities, can support youth identity and career pathways in STEM. In their efforts to pilot STEM programs with teens this past year, BGCGG found low interest at multiple sites, which Heather explained “reinforced the need to survey students to learn more about the types of programs they are interested in.” Heather believes that a high-quality interest survey could help them to make better decisions about programming and where they should narrow their STEM focus. By understanding youth interest, they can also better connect young people to local workforce development needs in Orange County and support trying out different STEM-related careers.
Though BGCGG reached out to various entities to access an interest survey they could use and adapt at the early stages of the making connections project, they were unable to find one that matched their unique needs. Ultimately, because the literature did not yield a survey that would fit the BGCGG context and capacity, Heather explained that they decided to develop a “homegrown” survey to gauge interest in STEM for their members – keeping it “internal” and “homemade.” Heather explained that in its development, they are considering how to match interests to what they have the capacity and expertise to offer. Thus far they have conducted the survey with four of their sites (as of January 2025) and collected about 250 responses from their youth members.
The current iteration of the survey is starting out at a “very high level,” first asking young people to rate themselves 1-5 for the question, “How much do you enjoy participating in STEM?” and “How do you feel about STEM?” The survey then asks youth to break down interest in different domains within the organization’s capacity – for example, “How interested are you in learning more about Science/Technology/Engineering/Math?” separately. The survey also asks if they would like to work in a STEM environment and if they would like to see more STEM opportunities available at BGCGG. The survey also asks youth to rate different STEM interests from most to least interested (e.g., agriculture, chemical engineering, computer science, physics). The survey asks how often they would like to join STEM activities and also asks what activities or hobbies compete most for their time. Finally, the survey asks about their preferences when engaged in learning activities – for example, if they like to work alone or by themselves and if they like to talk to their friends in the afterschool setting. Throughout the development of the survey, Heather and partners are asking, what do we have in our library of STEM curricula that we can pull from or what we know is easily accessible from our partners? Initial analysis of results from the first interest survey collection is underway, as is reflection on future iteration of its design.
In their processing of the survey, Heather and Mary are considering how the interest survey development is helping to actively connect youth interests to what they are offering at BGCGG in ways that help them to truly “amplify youth voice” within their programming and inform curricula choices. This larger objective is particularly important for middle school youth they work with, since they have had a harder time capturing and keeping that group’s interest compared to elementary school students.
We are in a learning mindset in relation to personas and interest survey development for STEM in the context of BGCGG, and we see the development and sharing of interest surveys among network and program level partners to support making connections to be an important part of this investigative thread. At the present time (Q1 2025), BGCGG is in the process of developing and implementing their internal “homegrown” survey across the district. The instrument is also still undergoing refinement as they solicit feedback from program partners and youth. Overall, the BGCGG team is considering how they can use interest surveys to not only link young people to programming within their internal capacity but also to opportunities connected to the greater Orange County community, to support the development of career interests and professional pathways in STEM.
Bergman, Abby, and Dawn McDaniel. 2023. Ready for Lift-off, Orange County?: How a National-local Partnership Keeps STEM Programming Innovative, Relevant, and Engaging. PEAR Inc.
https://imaginesci.org/pdf/ReadyforLiftOff_ISOC.pdf
Ching, Dixie, Rafi Santo, Kylie Peppler, and Chris Hoadley. 2018. “He Saw I Had a Loving For It”: Youth Interest Signaling as a Means of Generating Social Support in Technology Pathways. Hive Research Lab.
https://brokering.hiveresearchlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/hrl_2018_youth_interest_signaling_report1.pdf
STEM Next and the Connected Learning Lab at UCI have partnered to support state and regional out of school networks as they develop and strengthen an ecological and connected approach to STEM learning. The case studies series represent real world examples that are part of a larger effort to develop and improve connection strategies that strengthen STEM learning ecosystems, centering the experiences, mobility, and futures of individual learners and their families across state and regional networks.
For more information on the project and the strategies, visit https://stemnext.org/stem-pathways and connectedlearning.uci.edu/projects/making-connections/
