Afterschool STEM Hub’s Transition Memo to the Trump Administration

Photo courtesy of Million Girls Moonshot.

Happy New Year, everyone! As we move into 2025, we at the Afterschool STEM Hub are gearing up to engage with the new Presidential Administration and the 119th Congress to continue advancing afterschool STEM.

Our complex and changing world demands both an adaptable workforce capable of filling the growing demand for STEM talent and a scientifically literate public prepared to solve tough problems, improve their communities today, and find creative solutions to the challenges of tomorrow. Afterschool programs are a vital component of how youth engage in STEM to support these social and economic goals. They provide students with hands-on STEM learning and support a wide range of students across the country in identifying with STEM and learning how to utilize STEM skills to tackle challenges their communities face.

Wanting to keep afterschool STEM and its wider impact in society top of mind for our new and returning policymakers and leaders, we put together a Transition Memo, laying out a framework of necessary support. From increasing funding for 21st Century Community Learning Centers and ensuring afterschool programs are included within artificial intelligence literacy bills to sustaining workforce collaborations with afterschool communities, we have shared a broad set of policy recommendations with our incoming leaders.

As the new Presidential Administration and Congress work to establish goals and policy strategies for the coming years, we encourage them to include funding for afterschool STEM opportunities as key strategic components to nurturing the future of our nation as a global leader in STEM and our communities as healthy and thriving hubs of innovation. Acknowledging that afterschool is a critical complementary approach for engaging youth in STEM, our Transition Memo implores the Administration and 119th Congress to ensure that afterschool programs and afterschool educators are included in all education policy decisions.

You can check out the Transition Memo here to learn more. Stay tuned for more afterschool STEM advocacy updates and we look forward to collaborating with you all throughout 2025!