Equipping the next generation of young female innovators through STEM

When Alysa Rickman was a young girl, she was constantly getting in trouble for taking apart her toys, including cutting open a battery-operated doll to learn more about its electronic components.

"That was the start of my interest in the sciences and STEM," she said — joking that her future career was a toss-up between surgeon or engineer.

Alysa ended up following the latter path, and now works as a semiconductor test and bump operations planning analyst at our company in Dallas. One of the most fulfilling parts of her role involves chairing the Women's Employee Network (WEN), an employee resource group that has more than 30 chapters and around 3,000 members. Through volunteering initiatives with WEN, she hopes to inspire young girls who are curious like she was as a child.

"Our company has a long history of innovation built by pioneers like Jack Kilby, whose invention of the integrated circuit 66 years ago continues to inspire students, including the next generation of female engineers,” Alysa said. “Showing girls their potential in STEM and that they can be the next great engineer who will shape the future of technology is something that motivates me."    

The confidence gap: understanding the challenge

The need for more female role models like Alysa in STEM careers is clear. While women represent nearly half of the U.S. workforce, they only hold around 35% of STEM jobs^[1]. But this disparity isn't just an American problem; it's a global phenomenon.

What's more, studies suggest the STEM gap is about more than simply a lack of opportunity; it's deeply rooted in a crisis of confidence. Research shows that as early as age six girls begin to identify boys as "smarter." By age 11, many girls start backing away from subjects like math and science^[2]. This early divergence has downstream effects: Women account for only about one-fifth of bachelor's degrees in engineering, computer science and physics^[3].

The stakes for addressing this chasm go beyond individual career paths. "If you think about where innovation comes from, it comes from a diversity of thought," said Carolina Tejle Hartmann, who is a finance director at our office in Freising, Germany. "The fact is that in STEM areas, women are still underrepresented. Being able to show girls that you can work in STEM, innovate to create a better world out there, and also have room to really live out your passions... it's our responsibility to show girls that opportunity."

Expanding our global reach

Our company’s strategy to address this global challenge is twofold, combining financial investment with employee volunteerism. Since 2010, our company and the TI Foundation have invested around $80 million into STEM programs in the U.S., with a particular focus on creating learning opportunities for students who lack them, including empowering girls and young women.

Employee engagement is also critical to these efforts. In 2023 alone, WEN members dedicated more than 1,300 volunteer hours to build stronger communities, including STEM initiatives for girls. Their contributions range from mentoring programs to hands-on innovation workshops and career fairs, all aimed at inspiring the next generation of women in STEM.

Additionally, our company has launched targeted initiatives around the world, including:

The United States

In the U.S., we partner with organizations like the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas (GSNETX), supporting their STEM Center of Excellence — a 92-acre campus with state-of-the-art facilities for girl-focused hands-on STEM activities. Past collaborations have led to initiatives like the development of a coding badge, which introduces girls to basic programming concepts. Today, a couple of TIers serve on the GSNETX board and numerous employees regularly volunteer.

"A strong workforce pipeline for girls and young women isn't just nice to have; it's essential to the success of our communities," says Jennifer Bartkowski, CEO of GSNETX. "There's always something that Texas Instruments is doing for Girl Scouts to make us stronger and better able to be the partner they need in the community."

Another organization we support is the Young Women's Preparatory Network, a nonprofit agency that partners with public school districts across Texas to operate a network of all-girls STEM-focused schools. The TI Foundation recently made a four-year, $2 million grant that will help the Young Women’s STEAM Academy – a public school located in Balch Springs, Texas – join the network and to expand beyond middle school, providing a continuum of STEM learning through 12th grade. The program's success is self-evident: 100% of its students graduate from high school, and more than half of those graduates pursue STEM degrees in college.

Germany

In Germany, TIers participate in the Girls' Day initiative, a nationwide effort promoting STEM careers to girls. During this annual event, our company hosts girls in grades 8-13 for hands-on activities and facility tours. During the 2023 event, girls from schools in the greater Munich area got to engage with an astronaut who had come into the office for the day. Our company has hosted this event for 20 years, offering participants the opportunity to see inspiring presentations by female engineers, take part in question-and-answer sessions and gain practical insights into day-to-day work at TI. Girls have the chance to speak in-depth with TIers about their jobs and even build their own electronic circuits. 

TIers also sponsor a week-long summer STEM camp, Future Tech Makers, for girls between the ages of 15 and 18 that includes workshops on programming, robotics, and semiconductor basics, along with university visits.

"One of our core values is inclusion and another is innovation," said Carolina, noting that initiatives like this tackle both focus areas. “And on the more personal side, I think it's so important for these girls to see role models, which they might not see in school or at home. If we can open them up to these possibilities, I think that's something that we owe them."

Marion Loessl, a field application engineer based in Germany, has witnessed the value of role models in her own career and wants to use her experience to inspire girls. "I have met so many inspiring women in the technology industry who have encouraged me throughout my career journey,” said Marion. “As a female engineer, I also want to be a role model for girls."

India

In India, our company runs various programs tailored to local needs. For example, the Nurture Merit project provides scholarships and mentorship to bright girls from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. To date, it has supported 146 students, with 175 TIers serving as mentors. The program's impact is tangible: 12 students from the first group in 2020 are now employed by major corporations.

Also in India, the Women in Semiconductors and Hardware program offers a month-long mentoring initiative for women engineering students, including virtual and in-person sessions with simulation projects, technical paper readings, team presentations and lab exercises. Students who successfully complete the program get the chance to apply for an internship at our company.

Asia-Pacific

In Taiwan, the TI Taiwan Primary School STEM education program, launched in 2017, aims to spark girls' early interest in the sciences. The program has helped develop three educational kits and engaged around 200 volunteers, reaching 700 teachers, students, and parents.

Hope for Pearl, which operates across China, is another program supporting high-performing students from low-income families. To date, the initative has launched 14 Pearl classes for specialized STEM education and support, and reached around 645 students. Further, 171 TIers have contributed more than 950 hours to the program.

For Alan Li, the area director of our company's Northwest region in China, volunteering with Hope for Pearl has been deeply personal. "Spending time with these students reminds me of my own school days," he said. "My high school's resources were not the best, but I seized every opportunity to change my life through education, which empowered me to now work with the smartest and most talented people in the world."

The importance of exposure, representation and advocacy

Adrienne Alexander, a mechanical engineer and development process owner at our company, has also seen the impact of getting STEM projects into young girls' hands. In 2023, she traveled to the Navajo Nation in southern Utah as part of a TI-sponsored outreach program. There, she and a few team members introduced STEM concepts to elementary school students using innovative "Tinker Totes" — bags filled with STEM-related items for hands-on learning — and simple electronic devices that students could build and program. 

The experience was transformative for many of the students, particularly the girls. "Seeing the light in their eyes was amazing," Adrienne recalls. "Girls who had never considered STEM careers before were suddenly saying, 'I want to be an engineer; I want to be a scientist.'"

Alysa relates to Adrienne's sense of pride. She regularly speaks at schools and career fairs, sharing her journey in STEM. At one recent event, a young girl came up to her after watching her speak about her job, expressing amazement that a woman, particularly a Black woman, could be an engineer at her level. "I never knew that a woman could be an engineer," the girl told Alysa. "I want to be an engineer too."

Alysa was deeply motivated by this interaction. "To me, being able not only to share but also represent something hopeful, that's the most enlightening and gratifying part," she said. 

Taken individually, these anecdotes might seem like small victories. But as TIers like Alysa and Adrienne well know, all it takes is a spark to ignite a fire — and change the trajectory of a young girl's future.

"Representation is key. It's imperative for women — for girls — to see the possibilities," says Alysa, noting that it's up to the current generation of tech leaders to prepare a more inclusive and diverse workforce for the next.

"It’s exciting to help prepare a new generation of female leaders who may one day have a hand in carrying forward our company’s passion to create a better world by making electronics more affordable through semiconductors. There's definitely room for others at the table, we just have to advocate for it."

^{References:
[1] U.S. National Science Foundation. Diversity and STEM: Women, Minorities and Persons with Disabilities.
[2] Girl Scouts Research Institute. Generation STEM report.  
[3] Society of Women Engineers. Degree attainment report.}