The G.E.M. Environmental team gathered this past Friday to install the Little Free Libraries at some of the local Prescott schools. The teachers and students were very excited about the opportunity to exchange their used books for a new story to read! Sticking to G.E.M. Environmental’s mission to get kids interested in the STEM fields, every Little Free Library has been stocked with books about science, technology, engineering, and/or math. Listening to a specific request, we have put a copy of Rachel Ignotofsky’s book Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World in every Little Free Library that we created! We hope that this book and all the other books that are being donated can inspire girls to find their own passion and help them learn that they have the power to change the world.

Kicking off our fall semester's GEM For STEM lectures, Anthony Araza gave an amazing lecture for Dr. Boyd’s Geology 101 class. Mixing humor with facts, Anthony explained the benefits of getting a career in the STEM fields. He included statistics that demonstrated the increase in STEM jobs as well as the discussing how the average salary for a job in a STEM field is significantly more than most non-STEM field careers. Many students expressed that they enjoyed the lecture and were happy to be exposed to a variety of different careers that they could enter after graduation. There were multiple students who asked Anthony for career advice after the lecture, and he was able to answer all of their questions with detailed examples from his own career as a transport engineer and budget specialist.

We at G.E.M. Environmental are very excited that our first lecture of the semester went so well and are excited to continue our G.E.M. For STEM lecture series! 
For more information on how to volunteer for one of these classroom lectures,
contact our Program Coordinator Madison Link at Madison@gemenvironmental.org.

Thank you to GEM's newest sponsor - Decals By Danelle. They provided some beautiful GEM for STEM decals at a huge discount.

A great big THANK YOU from all of us at GEM!

On September 7th, G.E.M. Environmental held a building event to create Little Free Libraries that will be posted at 3 different schools: Mountain Oak School, Primavera School, and a school with the Prescott Unified School District. In a great show of support, ten volunteers came to help with the building project!

Not only was it amazing to see the support that G.E.M. Environmental gets from community members, we also saw it through the incredible donations that we got to support the project.

Prescott True Value Hardware was the first to show their support by donating one gallon of wood primer, and Home Depot showed their support by donating the rest of the materials needed for free! We also got two dozen donuts donated to us for our hardworking volunteers by one of the favorite local shops, Outlaw Donuts.

it was amazing to see the Prescott community collaborating on a project that could benefit over 500 students! As this event was such a success, and also a lot of fun, we hope that members and supporters of G.E.M. Environmental will continue help us make sustainable impacts in our community.

Thank you to everyone who came out this weekend to help us build Little Free Libraries to be placed around Prescott for the community to enjoy.

Check out our Events page to learn more about upcoming events and how to get involved.

There's only four days left to donate to help us meet our goal of raising $750 to build little free libraries. Just $210 to go! Make a difference in Prescott, AZ by giving today! 👍

Did you see? G.E.M. Environmental was featured in Prescott Living Magazine (late summer 2019) issue! Be sure to check out the magazine and look for us on page 88.

We're also featured in this month's Prescott Woman Magazine (the education issue). Three of GEM's talented women were featured on page 64.

GEM is beyond thrilled to be able to spread the word about our programs and mission. We hope you enjoy these articles!

We're excited to announce a new addition to the team! Please welcome Madison Link, who is our new AmeriCorps VISTA Member through Arizona Serve and G.E.M. Environmental STEM Outreach Specialist.

Madison was raised in Georgia with a loving, close family. She graduated summa cum laude from Georgia College & State University in three years with a Bachelor’s in Psychology and a Minor in Mathematics. She worked as a mathematics tutor at the college and as a legal assistant at a law firm while attending GCSU. She knew that she wanted to serve her country after college and joined AmeriCorps VISTA to help fight poverty through indirect service. After being raised by a science teacher mom and a data scientist dad, she realized that one of the best ways to help combat poverty is by creating STEM educational opportunities for children while collecting data that confirms those opportunities are working as intended.

She is very excited to be part of G.E.M. Environmental through the AmeriCorps VISTA as the Program Coordinator and she has already fallen in love with the beautiful city of Prescott. During her off time, she can often be found working on other charitable projects or kayaking on Watson Lake.

Welcome aboard, Madison!

G.E.M. Environmental has been awarded a Science Community grant by American Geophysical Union (AGU) Centennial. The focus of the grant is to enhance mutual support and networking opportunities for students and early career scientists. This grant marks the third in the past month that GEM has been awarded. One was from the Environmental and Sustainability fund, a component of the Arizona Community Foundation, and the other was from the BNSF Railroad Foundation for STEM interns to gain industry readiness.
 
AGU-Centennial grant funds will support GEM’s Field Experience Program, which teaches students about different STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Math) disciplines while facilitating learning to encourage active participation in discussion, expression, and communication. In addition to their education, students gain supervised practice experience working in the capacity of geo-scientists to obtain the range of capabilities required to enter industry in a professional capacity. The Program is designed to benefit underserved students, specifically first generation, female, minority, and low-income participants.
 
“We launched the program during the Spring 2019 semester at Yavapai College, which impacted approximately 140 students,” Eric M. Welsh, GEM’s Executive Director said. “GEM’s goal is to expand the program into two additional classrooms during the Fall 2019 semester at Yavapai College and offer two additional field trips, which would impact about 240 students in 2019 alone. We’re also working with Northpoint Expeditionary Learning Academy and other institutions to offer the program by 2020. Overall, the total estimated reach will directly impact 416 students and indirectly impact up to 860 students through 2020 across three schools.”

AGU was established in 1919 by the National Research Council and for more than 50 years operated as an unincorporated affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences. AGU was independently incorporated in 1972. More information is available at www.centennial.agu.org.

We're happy to report than G.E.M. Environmental has earned a Gold GuideStar Seal of Transparency. We've also updated our page with new pics and all our video trailers. Check it out here.

Attention STEM students! Are you interested in becoming an environmental steward, gaining hands-on work experience in the field, and making professional connections? G.E.M. Environmental is currently hiring 5 interns to assist with the New Mexico BLM Abandoned Mine Land (AML) program. Interns will serve as field cartographers on a team, prepare and submit detailed reports of data collected, assist in the collection, storage, and maintenance of field data, perform GIS manipulation and analysis, and more! The deadline to apply is May 31, 2019 and interns are compensated for their work. Learn more and apply here.

#STEMinternship #geologyinternship #prescottazinternship #newmexicointernship #geoscienceinternship

Did you hear the exciting news? G.E.M. Environmental won an Arizona Gives Day incentive prize for the most dollars raised within 24 hours. This means we earned an additional $1,250 for our Field Experience Program. Woohoo!!! A great big THANK YOU to all our donors who made this possible. We couldn't have done it without you!

Great job to all AZ non-profits who also placed. Read the full list of winners here.