Calculated Genius

Donations for our Summer Scholars Program funded 14 Chicago area high school students who participated in our immersive 6-week Summer Scholars Program. The program exposed them to real-life applications of technology, engineering and entrepreneurship. The students pitched the business ideas they created in the summer displaying an increased confidence, communication skills, and critical thinking!

Calculated Genius is proud to share that we awarded seventeen (17) freshmen undergraduate women with scholarships totaling $46,000 for the 2021-2022 academic school year. In addition to financial support, STEMINIST Scholars will receive access to mentorship and career development resources. “This year our pool of applicants included alumni of 2020 Calculated Genius high school programming which brought an extra level of gratification to the work we are doing ,” said Kelley Francis, Executive Director of Calculated Genius. “Having developed relationships with these scholars and knowing the impressive dreams and aspirations they have made awarding several of our program alumni with scholarship awards extremely fulfilling. We are thrilled to share our impressive Class of 2021 and look forward to working with them this year and beyond.” This program is provided by the generous support of our donors and program sponsors including Kimberly Moore, Kimberly & Christopher Jenkins Charitable Gift Fund, Motorola Solutions Foundation, LinkedIn, The Black Oak Restaurant, Visit.Org experiences, and individual supporters of our organization. In an effort to help close the gender gap and support more women on their path to succeed in engineering and computer science, Calculated Genius is proud to support and encourage women to pursue these degrees by recognizing their talents with financial awards and additional support thereafter. The scholarship recipients agree to participate in a minimum of yearlong programming including mentorship, career readiness and overall support to them during their college career, as well as alumni opportunities to give back to high-school students in Calculated Genius programs. In order to be eligible to apply, applicants had to be a female graduating high school student who plans on majoring in engineering or computer science in college, a minimum 3.0 GPA, and come from the Chicago metropolitan area. Complete and eligible applications were reviewed and judged based on academic achievements and records, community involvement or volunteerism, letters of recommendation and essay content. Congratulations to the seventeen (17) women who were selected to receive scholarships for the 2020-2021 academic school year. The scholars include: $500 award recipients: Roaa Marei graduated from East Leyden High School and is attending Harvard University for Mechanical Engineering Annabel Johnson is a graduate of Huntley High School and now attending University of Alabama at Birmingham for Biomedical Engineering major, with a neuroscience/mechanical systems minor $1,000 Scholarship Recipients: Jessica Beck is a graduate of Maine South High School and is attending the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor for Chemical Engineering Kaleia Maxey graduated from Chicago High School for Agricultural Science and is attending Purdue University for Industrial Engineering Emily Mendoza is a graduate of Holy Trinity High School and is attending the University of Illinois at Chicago for Computer Science Mercy Olatunde graduated from Daniel Hale Williams Preparatory School of Medicine and is attending Washington University in Saint Louis for Bioengineering Sabine Ramirez is a graduate of Epic Academy and is attending Purdue University - West Lafayette for Mechanical Engineering $2,000 Scholarship Recipients: Dominique Browder graduated from Plainfield East High School and is attending Fairfield University majoring in Bioengineering Stella Frangiadakis is a graduate of Rolling Meadows High School and is attending the University of Minnesota Twin Cities for Biomedical Engineering Ilana Kaven graduated from Evanston Township High School and is attending The University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign for Computer Science Joanna Kryczka is a graduate of Willows Academy and is attending the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign for Civil Engineering Andrea Nava graduated from Walter Payton College Prep and is attending The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign for Civil Engineering $5,000 Scholarship Recipients: Chloe Leung is a graduate of Whitney M. Young Magnet High School and now attending Northwestern University for Mechanical Engineering Alayna Nguyen graduated from Naperville North High School and is attending Columbia University majoring in Computer Science Katelyn Schumacher graduated from Walter Payton College Preparatory High School and is attending Vanderbilt University for Biomedical Engineering $5,000 Renewable Scholarship Recipient: Corrie Barnes is a graduate of Whitney M. Young Magnet High School and is attending University of Chicago for Computer Science and Mathematics (Double Major) $10,000 Scholarship Recipient: Elizabeth Codamon is a graduate of Whitney M Young Magnet High School and is attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for Computer Science We are so proud of our scholarship recipients and look forward to seeing the amazing work they will accomplish in their college careers. A sincere thank you to the supporters that make these scholarship opportunities for our students possible, we are so grateful! For volunteer and sponsorship opportunities please visit www.calculatedgenius.org.

In February 2020, Calculated Genius opened up the application form for the STEMINIST Scholarship Program to provide financial support to Chicagoland area women pursuing college degrees in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM). By the time applications closed on May 3, 2020, we received a total of 71 eligible applications! Calculated Genius is proud to share that we awarded fifteen (15) freshmen women with scholarships totaling $40,000 for the 2020-2021 academic school year. “The selection committee was extremely impressed by the number of highly qualified applicants. Receiving this scholarship is a testament to your outstanding accomplishments”, Calculated Genius Executive Director, Kelley Francis, shared with the awardees. In an effort to help close the gender gap and support more women on their path to succeed in STEM, Calculated Genius is proud to support and encourage women to pursue STEM degrees by recognizing their talents with financial awards and additional support thereafter. The scholarship recipients are asked to partake in mentoring sessions which look to provide career readiness and overall support to them during their college career as well as giveback to high-school students in Calculated Genius programs. At Calculated Genius we believe we have a responsibility to ensure that all students have equitable opportunities and pathways to careers in engineering and STEM. “We developed our Mentorship Matters Program as a way to meet the challenges of education today. Mentorship will ensure our students have role models who make them feel welcome in STEM, and provide them with a solid foundation to be better equipped to succeed in their educational and professional pursuits. I truly believe it takes one person to believe in you and support you, for confidence to build. We want our students to feel they have voice and a team supporting them” said Kelley Francis. In order to be eligible to apply, applicants had to be a female graduating high school student who plans on majoring in STEM in college, a minimum 3.0 GPA, and come from the Chicago metropolitan area. Complete and eligible applications were reviewed and judged based on academic achievements and records, community involvement or volunteerism, letters of recommendation and essay content. Congratulations to the fifteen (15) women who were selected to receive scholarships for the 2020-2021 academic school year. The students include: Allison Cavallo graduated from Whitney M Young Magnet High School (Chicago Public High School) and will attend Brown University for Environmental Engineering. Anayah Scott graduated from Kenwood Academy High School (Chicago Public High School) and will attend Amherst College to study Neuroscience. Audrey Nelson graduated from Whitney M Young Magnet High School (Chicago Public High School) and will attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for Bioengineering. Carina Huerta graduated from Trinity High School and will attend the University of Illinois at Chicago for Bioengineering. Hannah Adams graduated from Walter Payton College Prep (Chicago Public High School) and will attend Williams College to study Biology. Luria Tapia graduated from John Hancock College Preparatory High School (Chicago Public High School) and will attend Case Western Reserve University as an Undecided Engineering major. Mikayla Kantorski graduated from Wauconda High School and will attend the University of Alabama for Computer Science. Molly Wehrenberg graduated from Northside College Preparatory (Chicago Public High School) and will attend the University of California Los Angeles for Computer science and engineering. Samantha Calderon graduated from Victor J Andrew High School and will attend Northwestern University majoring in Biology. Samiyyah Hardison graduated from Kenwood Academy High School and will attend Howard University majoring in Biology and Mathematics. Sarah Skolozynski graduated from St. Ignatius College Prep and will attend Boston College majoring in Biology. Sofia Rogel graduated from Frederick Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center (Chicago Public High School) and will attend California Polytechnic State majoring in Biomedical Engineering. Udoka Nwansi graduated from Niles North High School and will be attending the University of Michigan majoring in Computer Science. Victoria Grove graduated from Victor J Andrew High School and will be attending Florida Atlantic University for Biology. Zoe Swick graduated from Victor J Andrew High School and will be attending the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) majoring in Biochemistry. If you are interested in joining our pool of mentors please visit here. We are so proud of our scholarship recipients and look forward to seeing the amazing work they will accomplish in their college careers.

Thanks to your donations, Calculated Genius was able to host a give-back event for CPS high school teachers! We provided them with much-needed supplies to get their year started.