Company: The Audacious Agency, Australia
Company Description: The Audacious Agency empowers and supports women in business to enter business awards. Their mission is to help women embrace owning their successes and shine the light on all they do. Using their decades of experience in PR and branding, they educate and guide women to leverage the process to stand out and be well known, well paid and wanted.
Nomination Category: Company/Organization Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Most Innovative Company of the Year – 10 or Less Employees
 Nomination Title: STEM PUNKS
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2020 of the nominated organization, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the appropriate spaces below:
- Briefly describe the nominated organization: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 184 words used.
STEM Punks’ mission is to “Inspire Tomorrow’s Innovators” and teach kids 21st century skills by enabling a mindset of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. After researching trends in overseas education, a gap in the market for quality STEM education for children in Australia led Fiona Holmstrom and Michael Holmstrom to co-found out of their suburban garage almost five years ago.
At the time, STEM wasn’t part of the national curriculum. They saw the need for quality STEM education for children, providing them with learning outcomes aligned to the national curriculum, not just for entertainment value. What started as market testing with the local community had such a rapid uptake from parents and teachers, the business scaled up nationally. Since then, they have inspired and educated over 150,000 young people.
Last year, in a move to bring STEM education to a wider audience, STEM Punks® TV was created. It’s a world-first streaming platform dedicated to STEM education. The OTT platform is available on iOS, Android, and Web, and provides leading STEM education to enable equity and equality in STEM education for children across the globe.
- Outline the organization's achievements since July 1 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 244 words used.
STEM Punks has accomplished big things over the past two years, creating educational programs that are highly scalable and can secure large contracts by leveraging STEM Punks digital capitalism. After losing eight months of income in early 2020, they fully embraced the opportunity to refashion the business for the future and make STEM accessible to more children globally.
With the program pillars backed by curriculum and skilled teachers, they've celebrated some incredible achievements:
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In discussions with Dell and Emerson to develop industry-linked programs for their industries. STEM Punk's digital storytelling abilities has been instrumental in securing these important partnerships.
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secured an Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade grant to advance the STEM capacity in Vietnamese schools over 12 months. Partnering with Vietnam National University as the delivery hub.
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STEM Punks® TV was created - a world-first streaming platform dedicated to inclusive STEM education.
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New global collaboration formed between the not-for-profit LING Project (Literacy In Northern Ghana) in Ghana to build literacy for females in the region, and help schools and communities access tools, training, and support.
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Innovation Sports - an internal competition that encourages students to solve problems in a competitive way, with other children across the world; truly showing how STEM Punks bring STEM to everyone, everywhere, and to enable equality and equity in STEM education.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 90 words used.
The support document attached adds a deeper understanding of the significance of the work Fiona and STEM Punks have done over the past two years. From losing most of their income to creating a world first inclusive STEM education resource to collaborating with global leaders in business.
The support document has images and information on the programs delivered by STEM Punks, the media and awards secured over the past two years for their work in STEM, as well as reviews and testimonials showing the impact of their curriculum lead programs.
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 236 words used.
STEM Punks’ work is vital in bringing STEM education to less fortunate communities. By focusing on remote areas and predominantly primary and high schools, historically serviced by random parties providing sporadic STEM education, STEM Punks is equalising education. Providing leading, award-winning educational programs that support teachers and students to learn about STEM and be skilled for the jobs of the future.
The wide range of programs makes STEM more accessible to girls and children in isolated and economically challenged communities. STEM should be accessible to all communities; not limited only to those who can afford to pay. STEM Punks overcomes the inequity in education. Creating STEM programs for remote and regional communities, ethnic groups, minorities, marginalised students, underprivileged school students and historically underrepresented minority groups will have access to online programs, empowering children with a mindset of innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship at no cost.
STEM Punks makes STEM achievable via distance learning throughout COVID, giving teachers a platform and channel where they could reach more students, while maintaining a teaching pedagogy.
85% of the jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t been invented yet. Therefore, STEM Punks is doing now for the next generation of innovators to create a pathway to those careers that will enable them to be future-focused leaders. STEM Punks is a world changer in education by future-proofing children across the world. STEM encompasses not only the technical, but human skills as well.
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