Empowering Through Education: YouthRoots Breaks Barriers in STEM

(Images courtesy of YouthRoots.)

In a rapidly-changing job market in need of innovators with critical thinking and problem-solving skills, supporting STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education has never been more important. It is these skills that will empower future leaders to tackle issues like climate change, food insecurity, and public health crises with new and creative solutions, regardless of the career paths they pursue. However, for many, access to STEM education from an early age is limited. YouthRoots, a nonprofit registered in November of 2023 and founded by high school students Riddhi Ganesh and Sally Mundia, set out to change that by expanding access to STEM education for students across the world.

Co-founder Mundia shares that the purpose of YouthRoots has always been “to provide STEM education to children from underprivileged backgrounds,” a mission that is carried out in numerous ways. Most importantly, YouthRoots has collaborated with organizations such as NJ Rise and Homefront, both dedicated to supporting underprivileged families, to work through lessons and STEM activities with young students. YouthRoots’ activities are varied, relating to robotics, chemistry, physics, biology, and more. Each activity requires extensive planning, especially to ensure an age group of students mainly 7 to 13 can learn something new from each lesson. After their lessons, the YouthRoots team hands out STEM kits to students and families, with new materials to help sustain continued interest in learning. Various sponsorship and fundraising efforts have helped the group raise over $1,000 to continue their work. Furthermore, to inform their educational programs, the YouthRoots team conducts monthly interviews with STEM professionals who are either working in STEM fields or studying to be. According to co-founder Ganesh, “the interviews help us give previews of career options to kids that we work with” and help with outreach efforts.

Locally, YouthRoots also offers annual summer programs, which will take place at the West Windsor Public Library this year. These summer programs are offered free of charge, meeting every Friday from 2-4 pm, July 18th to August 8th. (Fill out this form to receive email updates regarding this year’s programs, and refer to the poster attached at the bottom of the page for more information.) Each week features lessons and activities related to a different STEM topic. In a past year’s activity related to forensics, content manager Shalya Vemula shares, “students learned about solubility and reactivity” by engaging with the team’s fun and appropriately-challenging lessons. These lessons are effective and rewarding, even when considering some of YouthRoots’ biggest obstacles. According to Vemula, some of the students YouthRoots has worked with “didn’t speak English, so finding other ways to communicate was really important to us.” Ultimately, Mundia asserts that “the fact that we can adapt to such a young age and get students excited to learn and keep coming back is our greatest achievement.”

When asked what inspired them to found or join YouthRoots, the YouthRoots team cited a desire to give back to their community and experiences seeing a loss of passion for STEM among younger students, especially those without as many educational opportunities. On trips to India and Kenya, respectively, Ganesh and Mundia witnessed young people “having to fight to get the opportunities we have.” STEM fields often see underrepresentation of women and people of color, but as asserted by Mundia, “children from all over the world, regardless of their background, deserve to have access to STEM education,” inspiring the creation of YouthRoots.

Moving forward, the YouthRoots team has plans for more national and international partnerships, such as with an organization in Kansas and communications to an organization in Kenya to coordinate planning for a virtual lesson and to ship STEM kits overseas. YouthRoots’ work is far from finished, which is why the team is currently training four younger members to eventually take over leadership for the organization, especially once the current members graduate from high school. Ganesh asserts that “YouthRoots is here to spread STEM knowledge to kids who don’t have the same opportunities that we do, so that they have the option to be whatever they want. That is here to stay.” Furthermore, as stated by Mundia, “once we graduate, we’ll still be part of YouthRoots. We want to continue the idea of sustained work—we’ve collaborated with organizations like Homefront and NJ Rise not just for one-time activities, but for lasting partnerships.”

YouthRoots has been rewarding for both its members and the students it has worked to teach and motivate. “Seeing my passion reflected in these kids has been super inspiring, for me and for them,” says Vemula. “It’s felt empowering to start something so new, being high school students ourselves,” Ganesh adds. “YouthRoots started out just being an idea. And that idea has formed into something much bigger.”

For more information about YouthRoots, visit youthrootsnow.com or find them on Instagram @youthrootsnow.