Local Scholarships

AAUW Howard County Branch has raised more than $40,000 for scholarship recipients at Howard Community College (HCC). In 2020, we established the AAUW – Howard County Branch Scholarship Fund within the HHC Educational Foundation. This partnership allows AAUW members and friends to make tax deductible donations and enhances our ability to direct the scholarship dollars to the most deserving women.

We are awarding six $1,000 scholarships for the 2025-26 Academic Year to women in the HCC Parent Scholars Program, most of whom are pursuing a degree in a STEM field (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) where women are underrepresented in the workforce. In addition to scholarship assistance, the College works one-on-one with students who qualify for this program to help identify and access the resources necessary for them to achieve academic success while balancing the obligations of work, school and family.

Closing the STEM Gap

More than 30 years ago AAUW helped spark a nationwide debate on gender bias with the release of a report that showed that girls were discouraged systematically, if unintentionally from a wide range of academic pursuits, particularly in math and science. Despite progress, women are still underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and barriers to STEM equity persist across the educational pipeline. 

Gender stereotypes take root in elementary school, discouraging girls from seeing themselves as capable in math and science. This continues into Middle School and High School. As a result, many young women find themselves ill-equipped to pursue higher paying STEM majors in college. Giving women the opportunity to pursue and thrive in STEM careers will help narrow the gender pay gap and enhance women’s economic security.

We encourage elementary school and middle school students to explore careers in STEM at the Girl Power Expo held each March at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. Last year we presented three break-out sessions of “The Math Detective”, a hands-on activity that involved the use of mathematics and cryptology to solve a crime in the fictional city of “Mathhatten.” In previous years, our booth “Reach for the Stars” has featured hands-on chemistry activities and conversations with our scientist-members.