Empowering LGBTQ+ Youth in STEAM with PATHS

PATHS December 2025 Report

In October, PATHS accepted 17 LGBTQ+ students in STEAM, across 14 states and territories, to receive the 2025 PATHS STEAM Educational Grant, awarding a total of $20,000 for their educational pursuits. This year’s grant recipients span a variety of STEAM fields, including Aerospace Engineering, Geographic Information Systems, Cybersecurity & Machine Learning, Biomedical Engineering, and Economics. PATHS believes that supporting LGBTQ+ students in STEAM to be successful, goes just beyond financial support. Each one of the grant recipients participates in the PATHS Mentorship Program to also get the guidance and advice they need.

In October, PATHS kicked off the 4th cohort of the PATHS Mentorship Program, welcoming 17 mentees. Mentees have access to weekly mentorship meetings, workplace development workshops, and financial literacy training to help guide their next steps. Mentees also were provided with a Pluralsight License and a Workplace Development Resource Kit with documents, templates, spreadsheets and tools they can use to best prepare them for the current job market and the workforce as a whole. In November, mentees were paired with a mentor to work with 1:1 for the next 8 months. The PATHS Mentorship cohort is 9 months long and will continue until June 2026.

On October 9th, PATHS also held its first virtual summit titled PATHS Forward Summit: Current State of Hiring. The event provided panel discussions on the current state of hiring and navigating AI, a presentation of the PATHS STEAM Workplace Survey report, affinity group networking and resume reviews. 

In December, PATHS released the first episode of the PATHS Forward Podcast, featuring interviews of LGBTQ+ professionals in STEAM where they discuss their journeys into STEAM and how they got to where they are now. The first episode highlights Lo Smith, the Executive Director of the Baltimore Digital Equity Coalition. Lo talks about their experience as a non-binary person, their background in library science, and their work in digital equity. Each episode releases every first Monday of each month on all podcast platforms, as well as a video interview on YouTube.