Interview with the Founder of STEM for Kids - Moni Singh

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We sat down to interview Moni Singh, founder and CEO of STEM for Kids USA. Here she shares her journey into the field of education, as well as her thoughts and impressions of Dubai!

A few years after transitioning herself out of corporations, Moni Singh the CEO of STEM wanted to focus on the field of education and search for the answers to the following questions:

  1. What if we focused our energies in exposing children to the wonders of STEM early on, in elementary and middle schools?
  2. What if this early engagement with STEM was fun and connected with the real world of engineering and business?

She then went on to find solutions that would clear the way to bring STEM to young children.

When asked about her feelings when she looks back at this journey, she informs, “It has been my most purposeful and cherished journey. The experience and satisfaction surpassed even my most successful feats during my corporate career.”

When you started STEM for Kids did you ever imagine it would bring you here?

I started STEM For Kids with a passion to solve my own problem - keeping my children excited about the wonders of science and engineering along with their friends. With the overwhelming interest from children, parents and educators that passion soon grew to touch a community, a city, a state and now a global mission. So, did I imagine Dubai in the cards when I started? No and definitely not this soon!

What are your first impressions of Dubai?

Dubai strikes me as a vibrant city full of high energy and optimism. I was particularly amazed by its people with their diverse cultures from all around the world and their faces beaming with aspirations as tall as the Burj Khalifa.  With its highly ambitious structural projects, Dubai symbolises a re-invigoration of STEM especially the classic engineering fields of Civil and Mechanical Engineering.

How important do you think STEM is for this region?

High youth population and growing middle-class affluence in many markets in the Middle East are creating a more competitive employment environment that requires more specialized skill-sets like STEM, in addition to fundamental education.  An amalgamation of world cultures and big technology companies provide for fertile landscape for the region to spearhead creation of the next generation of STEM leaders and workers.

Tell us about the industries/business leaders you work with.

My business is making STEM fun and real for children. To do that effectively, collaborative partnerships with other community organizations serving children and with businesses looking to make a positive impact have been important. So, we work with many leaders across industries like software, hardware, bio-tech, space research, universities, food & community serving groups. A few examples include engineering and 3D printing with Gilero Biomedical, learning about robots in space with NASA, looking inside computer hardware with Atmel and parachuting with engineers at Dairy Queen.

What would you say has been the biggest change in STEM education in the last year or so?

At STEM For Kids,  when we started offering computer programs parents/educators/schools were just warming up to the idea and our efforts involved creating awareness around need for building algorithmic thinking and reasoning at an early age. The biggest recent change we are seeing is a greater community buy-in and a collective effort in bringing computer programming to elementary age children.

What's next for STEM for Kids?

New programs for children and a strong franchise network of business leaders making STEM fun and real for kids across the globe.

With goals of expanding its global reach in order to empower more children from across the world, STEM for kids is now open in Dubai. To find out more about how STEM for Kids can make your kid ready for the future, contact us by filling the form on this page.

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