The kinetic sculptures were supposed to spin gently when the girls turned on their hair dryers. But as soon as the first creation twirled into motion — foil shimmering, ribbons fluttering — the whole room lit up. A crowd of elementary-aged girls leaned in, laughing as their sculptures wobbled, spun or rocketed more wildly than expected. When Jaimee Diogo launched the New Jersey chapter of STEM Like a Girl in October 2024, she wasn’t simply organizing workshops, she was creating the environment she wished she’d had growing up.
Now a graduate student in NJIT’s biology of health program and the newly named NJ STEM Pathways Network’s 2025 New Jersey STEM Advocate of the Year, Diogo has already reached nearly 70 girls and their families through hands-on STEM programming. Her mission, she said, is deeply personal. “I never saw myself as someone who belonged in STEM,” said Diogo. “I assumed science wasn’t for girls, and it wasn’t until college that I felt capable in a STEM setting.” As an undergraduate at Montclair State, a genome-annotation lab unexpectedly shifted her trajectory. “It opened a door I didn’t think I could walk through,” she recalled. “That moment made me want to help girls discover that door much earlier than I did.”
That motivation led her to STEM Like a Girl, a national organization founded in 2018 by Sarah Foster. Diogo discovered it on Instagram and immediately felt New Jersey needed a chapter. She reached out, asked to start one, and with Foster’s support, launched the East Coast’s first chapter. To read the full story.