Shaler Area alum awarded STEM scholarship for junior, senior years at Saint Vincent College
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Shaler Area graduate Grace Tavitas is blazing a trail for young female academics with a passion for science.
The Saint Vincent College junior was named a Clare Boothe Luce scholar, earning full-ride tuition, room and board for her final two years of undergraduate studies.
The Shaler resident is an engineering major with a minor in math.
“My hope is that younger female students view this as an opportunity to be less intimidated in joining a male-dominated major,” Tavitas, 20, said.
The scholarship is offered through the Clare Boothe Luce program for women in STEM of the Henry Luce Foundation, which is designed to increase the number of women who enroll and graduate as leaders in computers, engineering and physics.
Women make up about 28% of the workforce in STEM careers, according to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), a group that works to narrow the gap.
The gender divide is particularly noticeable in some of the highest-paid jobs of the future, such as computer science, according to the AAUW website.
The late Clare Boothe Luce had a career that spanned 70 years in different fields from politics to theater to journalism.
She served as a U.S. Ambassador and authored the 1936 play, “The Women.” She was instrumental in forming the Atomic Energy Commission and was posthumously inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2017.
Her bequest founded the program which has grown to become one of the largest private sources of funding for women’s STEM education in college.
As of 2019, the program awarded grants totaling more than $200 million to more than 2,600 girls.
“It is very exciting, and I am beyond grateful,” Tavitas said. “It is truly life-changing. It is hard to put into words how amazing this is — besides having a full ride, this scholarship will allow many opportunities for me and my future.”
Scholars can select a service or research component to fulfill their obligation to the award.
Tavitas will participate in a STEM Module Development Summer Program, a six-week residential program where she works with faculty to develop lessons for middle school and high school students, all with the aim of encouraging young girls to pursue science-related curriculum.
The STEM modules will be implemented during summer programs at Saint Vincent, like the annual science camp for disadvantaged and historically underrepresented high school students from Philadelphia.
Tavitas said she will also help mentor female college freshmen and tutor those aspiring to follow STEM fields.
Tavitas said her passion for math and science started as a child but credits a high school teacher for cementing her career choice.
“I chose to pursue engineering in 11th grade because of my physics class,” she said. “My teacher, Mr. Davis, was very influential in my decision to go into this field.”