This document summarizes a study on the remote mentoring program called MAGIC (Get More Active Girls in Computing). MAGIC aims to increase female participation in STEM fields through one-on-one remote mentoring matches between young girls and women professionals in technology careers. The study analyzed data from MAGIC's first 5 years, finding that remote mentoring increased STEM skills, self-confidence, and career awareness for many mentees. However, challenges included maintaining mentor and mentee commitment over time. The study concludes that remote mentoring shows promise for improving gender diversity in STEM, but more data is needed to better understand impacts and how to address challenges.

1. Ritu Khare (GetMagic)
Esha Sahai (MIT)
Ira Pramanick (Google Inc.)
contact@getmagic.org
MIT LINC June 18
Remote Mentoring
Young Females in STEM
Through MAGIC

2. Motivation
• Gender Stratification and Limited Participation
– Women ONLY 24% of the STEM workforce in the US (American
Community Survey 2009)
– NOT due to lack of talent but due to discouraging societal
attitudes and unique challenges (Khoja et al. 2013, Gorman et al., 2010)
• More women in workforce could raise GDP by 5%
(Hewlett, 2012)
– Establish a nation-wide mentoring system that engages,
motivates, and inspires young females toward STEM
subjects in a personalized manner Henneberger et al. 2012)
Explores a remote mentoring approach to STEM mentoring

3. Why Remote Mentoring?
• Advantages
– Accessibility
– Personalization
– Efficiency
Only way to scale nation-wide and offer STEM
mentoring to girls from all segments of society

4. Goals of this Study
Introduce MAGIC
• Get More Active Girls in
Computing!
• Nationwide matching bridge
between
– Girls interested in STEM topics
– Women with successful
technology & computing careers
Assess Remote Mentoring
• We present the first data on
remote mentoring of young
females in STEM
– 5-year retrospective statistical
analysis
– Mentoring relationships across
at 7 US states
– 23 girls from 3 different types
of schools

5. MAGIC: Organizational Settings
• Structure
– Core-Team
– Board Members
– Mentors
• Mentoring Philosophy
– One-on-one mentoring
– MAGIC establishes each mentor-mentee pair
– Mentoring Sessions
– Noteworthy final projects
• Mobile app development
• Tic-tac-toe
• Website Development
• Google SketchUp based building design

6. Methodology and Data
• Data on remote
mentoring:2008-2013
• Data Collection Points
– Mentors and Mentees
– School
– Mentor-mentee
• Collected by the core team
in a narrative fashion
• Anonymized before sharing
with the key investigators
of this study
Entity Total
MAGIC Remote Mentors 16
Participating Schools 12
MAGIC Mentors 23
MAGIC Pairs 23
6

7. Results: MAGIC Mentors (Total 16)
• Highest academic degrees finished
– 9 doctorates, 5 masters, & 2 bachelors
• During recruitment, the candidates expressed strong
interest in inspiring more girls to pursue STEM and giving
back to the society and scientific community

8. Results: MAGIC Mentees (Total 23)
• Partnership: 8 schools (5 public, 2 private, 1 charter),
located in CA and MA
• Few mentees belong to four other schools that are
not officially associated with MAGIC, but allow
student-level participation

9. Results: Remote Mentoring Activities
• Distribution of Projects
– Computational based: 44%
– Game/Animation/Web: 36%
– Non-programming: 20%

10. Results: Remote Mentoring Challenges
• At least 7 mentees and 7 mentors reported no
challenges
• All the pairs successfully dealt with the challenges
either on their own or with support from the core team

11. Results: Impact on Remote Mentoring
• Mentors
– Positive and educational experience
– Enjoyed their relationship with the young mentees
– 6 offered assistance in MAGIC core and administrative activities
and expressed interest in becoming board members
– 3 did not find the relationship rewarding due to the lack of
mentees’ commitment and enthusiasm

12. Discussion: Organizational Outcomes
• Accessibility
– Associations with 3 different types of schools to reach out to
different societal sections
– Most mentors located in California and Massachusetts
– Majority of MAGIC core & board members reside in CA and MA
– Matched mentees and mentors across 7 different US states
• Personalization
– Mentees:
• Different familial backgrounds
• Diverse set of expectations
–MAGIC offered tailored services
• Variety of STEM skills (programming, creative, Web, conceptual)
• Variety of projects (technical and interpersonal)

13. Discussion: Organizational Outcomes
• Plan for Growth
– Stayed small for first few years
– Tens of schools and hundreds of mentees in the next
five years
– Challenge
• Replicating the energy and dedication of the small board of
directors
– Partnerships with universities, national labs, and
companies

14. Discussion: Lessons Learnt
• Popular communication tools
– Skype, Google Hangout, and phone
• Top learning choices
– Programming, topic-based learning, and creative skills
• Popular project choices
– Computational and game projects, and shadowing activities
• Mentors and mentees perceived different set of challenges.
– Mentees: Time management and logistics
– Mentors: delivery of content and social challenges
• Remote mentoring made a positive impact
– Mentees’ lives
– Building skills and self confidence
– Several mentees gained scientific visibility and significant career awareness

15. Conclusions and Future Work
• Introduced our unique organization, MAGIC
– Remotely yet closely engages girls to pursue STEM
– Highly personalized services
– Most pressing concern
• Recruiting mentors and mentees who have the passion,
time, and energy to help realize the vision of MAGIC
• Data-driven perception on remote mentoring
young females in STEM

16. Conclusions and Future Work
• Limitations
– Majority of the mentoring projects focused on
computer programming due to the backgrounds of
our current mentors
– Conduct the study with increased numbers of pairs
– Diversify the mentees’ locations and interests
– Study correlation between the challenges faced
and the mentoring outcomes

17. Acknowledgements
• Participating Schools
• MAGIC Mentees and Parents
• MAGIC Mentors
• Sponsors (Google, Teradata, and personal
donors)