For the second consecutive year, Gulliver’s Upper School Math Department partnered with the University of Miami, joining forces in the Girls are for STEM Program – an Advancing Women in Mathematics Across the Americas (WIMSA) initiative that aims to encourage female high school students to pursue higher education in STEM fields.
For the 2024-25 school year, 13 Gulliver students participated in Girls are for STEM and 21 have already applied for admission this coming fall. In addition to Gulliver, WIMSA partners with Miami-Dade County Public Schools and other private high schools in the county to provide advanced math classes for university credit to female high school juniors and seniors. As part of this program, Grace Sonville ‘26 was able to take a math course at the University of Miami as a high school junior, exposing her to an expanded view of the subject.
“This program has been an amazing opportunity that has encouraged me to continue learning about math outside of just Gulliver,” said Grace. “I loved seeing how the things we learn in class apply to the real world. Statistics is used in many fields, and after taking this class, I have a foundation for other areas I am interested in.”
According to WIMSA, at around age 16, young women talented in mathematics tend to drop out of the advanced math track. Girls are for STEM seeks to address this leaking pipeline of women in STEM.
“Being a part of Girls are for STEM has allowed me to be in a community where people are just as passionate as me, especially in fields where women are underrepresented,” Grace said. “My interest in math has grown, and being a part of this program has made me want to pursue a career where I can apply this knowledge by studying either applied mathematics or finance in the future.”
The Girls are for STEM partnership is just one way Gulliver has teamed up with Miami’s namesake university to expand learning opportunities for students. In fact, Gulliver offers something no other school in Miami-Dade County offers: a full-tuition scholarship dual-enrollment program with the University of Miami. In 2024-25, 18 students have been enrolled in university-level courses while still in high school, getting a head start on their college journey.
