Blue Chip Scholars Research
Background
This organization was founded by NASA KBR engineer, Jessica Newman, with a vision to:
Enable young women, ages 13 -18, in the acquisition of the skills, experience, and network needed to become innovators and strategic leaders.
Jessica recruits Professional mentors to host Blue Chip Scholars clubs centered around their chosen career (i.e. Aerospace, Technology, Design, etc.) When paired with a University mentor, these clubs help young women explore potential college and career options in STEM fields. As a new and growing organization they were struggling to balance the administrative overhead for the mentors with the right level of support for Scholars.
Research Objectives
#1:
Understand the needs of active Blue Chip Scholar participants in order to provide a seamless connection for mentors to actively engage and support the Scholars.
#2:
Frame the user research process in order to train women new to UX how they can conduct interviews and synthesize research results.
Comparative Research
9%
of girls between ages of 13 and 17 are interested in careers in STEM*
34%
of degrees awarded in STEM fields are to women.
Similar organizations
Based on this preliminary comparative research, I found a lack of options for girls pursuing STEM mentorship and connection.
Interviewing BCS Participants
Methods used:
User interviews
Tools used:
Google Recorder, Google Sheets
After meeting with the founder of Blue Chip Scholars, I created separate scripts for the mentors and the scholars. I was able to interview the following participants from the Aerospace club. (Note: I would prefer to interview a few more people in each role, but in this organization’s pilot phase there was only one active club)
1 Professional mentor
2 University mentors
2 Scholars
Research insights
We found the following common insights for all participants
Their favorite aspect of the BCS is the quality time they get with each other.
They have very full schedules, so their time is limited.
They need more structure and clearer ongoing objectives.
Leading others to learn
I conducted this research as one of the Co-Leads for Hexagon UX Houston. This effort was the first part of a three month design series to help Blue Chip Scholars improve their organization and for Hexagon UX members learn more about the human-centered design process with a real world example.
After completing the research, I summarized for new UXers how others could do similar work. This included facilitating interactive activities, providing research tips, and teaching about core HCD concepts and artifacts.
Conclusion
This research study left the founder of Blue Chips Scholars saying,
This has given us a lot of confidence in scaling our organization!