Advancing a collaborative network toward equitable STEM pathways in intensive youth programs

Intensive youth STEM programs serve high school students in informal learning spaces such as museums and community centers. They engage participants over weeks, months, or years, focusing on long-term STEM outcomes, especially for populations historically marginalized in STEM fields. However, many of these programs operate independently or in silos, limiting opportunities for collective learning and improvement. Isolation is driven by factors such as diverse organizational types, funding sources, program sizes, content focus, and research and evaluation capacities. Furthermore, conducting longitudinal studies to track participant outcomes is rare and expensive. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a conversation toward the establishment of a collaborative network to support research collaboration and knowledge integration, exchange, and translation. Such a network would strengthen the capacity of these programs, improve long-term outcomes for participants, and contribute to the broader STEM education and career research community, enhancing the overall impact of intensive youth STEM programs. • Out of school STEM programs for adolescents to explore STEM careers shape short-term STEM & social emotional outcomes. • Many STEM programs do not have the capacity or resources to track their trajectories. • Efforts to understand STEM program outcomes are often isolated, with few opportunities to learn with & from others. • We call for a collaborative network facilitating collaboration, knowledge exchange, integration, & translation to practice. • Beneficiaries of the collaborative network include STEM programs, researchers/ evaluators, & program alumnae(i) and youth.