Vision

To establish a diverse and engaged community of individuals that respect each other and value collaborative and sustainable solutions resulting in scientific and engineering developments that better humanity and our world.

Values

• Engagement of society in the value of STEM education for all genders;
• Promotion of awareness, understanding, and respect between genders;
• Sustainable solutions and environmental awareness;
• Identify challenges, investigate options, and create solutions;
• Leadership, citizenship, and service;
• Open-access to all members of society; and
• Networking and collaboration to inclusively achieve goals.

EPSILON Strategy

Engage: Engage with students (K-12 and post-secondary), community, and industry to involve them in the creation of solutions to increase gender diversity in STEM fields. Facilitate the engagement of young women in STEM activities to expose them to STEM careers.

Promote: Promote events and opportunities to engage and learn about STEM disciplines and careers and publicize resources and research addressing diversity challenges in STEM fields.

Sustain: Sustain and continue existing initiatives from other groups in the BC/Yukon region. When developing new initiatives, work to ensure their sustainability alongside existing initiatives.

Investigate: Investigate challenges and solutions to increasing the number of women pursuing studies, careers, and promotions in STEM fields. When performing this research, work with community and research partners to create collaborative solutions that can be broadly applied and evaluated.

Lead: Lead conversations with students, parents, teachers and industry to empower women to choose, pursue and succeed in careers in STEM fields. Be a leader, along with other successful women in STEM disciplines, and act as a role model for young women. Engage with industry and community partners to increase the number of women in leadership roles.

Open: Promote and support equity by making events open-access. Subsidize travel costs where possible and work to ensure that all engaged individuals can participate without exclusion due to financial hardship. Open opportunities for all women (independent of culture, religion, or circumstance) to engage in STEM activities to expose them to STEM careers.  

Network: Help women connect and collaborate through a dedicated network of institutional, regional, and provincial resources; create centralized access for everyone throughout the BC/Yukon region; network with the other CWSE Chairs across the country and with national organizations to disseminate and share information, resources, and best practices nationwide and internationally to improve diversity in the STEM fields.