Episode 17: Advocating for Inclusivity in STEM Education

Imagine A World

Named one of 10 women changing the landscape of leadership by The New York Times, scholar Aya Mouallem is an advocate for diversity in STEM and cofounder of the award-winning initiative All Girls Code. She imagines a world where STEM education is not only accessible and equitable, but also inclusive to learners of all backgrounds and abilities. Hear her reflections on her upbringing in Lebanon and her Knight-Hennessy Scholars journey, a community she calls “a home in the world and the world in a home.”

Highlights from the episode:

• (4:56) Aya's transformative experiential learning opportunities growing up in Beirut, Lebanon, from participating in a science fair to protests to building her own nonprofit
• (10:10) Founding All Girls Code, a nonprofit to encourage girls to study STEM
• (16:12) How the privilege of experiential learning should be accessible to everyone
• (20:00) Moving at Stanford from researching biochips to making engineering tools accessible to marginalized communities, and fighting the ableism of engineering field, inspired by the experiences of a blind classmate
• (26:46) Handing All Girls Code onto future generations, by building up pathways for girls who went through the program in high school to eventually lead the program
• (30:58) Aya's connection to Lebanon, from a necklace she wears to remind herself of home, participating in anti-corruption protests in 2019, founding a fellowship program for Lebanese students, and cooking Lebanese food
• (40:40) How Aya thinks about using her online presence to magnify attention to the causes she cares about
• (44:5) Knight-Hennessy program has enriched Aya's experience at Stanford, from programming to community to growing her appreciation for and involvement in the arts
• (50:46) Aya's improbable fact about having visited over 50 museums, and her advice to applicants to the program