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Listen to this articleBy Karla Amador
San Diego, CA — Inspired by her daughter’s participation in an engineering summer camp prototyping solar-powered cars, Ava M. Mason founded Treobytes to expand S.T.E.M. career education in her neighborhood.
“I envisioned helping parents and their children prepare for opportunities in S.T.E.M within the global economy,” says Mason.
Graduating with a degree in Management Technology and Biochemistry from Purdue University, Mason has worked for startups and Fortune 500 companies. Her career trajectory brought her to one of the Nation’s S.T.E.M. hubs, San Diego, California.
“I found that the current structure of S.T.E.M. education in the San Diego public school system was not serving students from lower socioeconomic neighborhoods. Treobytes is one organization dedicated to moving the needle in the right direction.”
Mason founded the San Diego-based organization in 2014 on the mission to educate marginalized families about S.T.E.M. career opportunities and to inspire students, especially young girls of color, to pursue a future in S.T.E.M.
“Kids may not know scientists or other S.T.E.M professionals to look up to. Treobytes provides the opportunity to connect with them and feel empowered through hands-on experience, which is a core aspect of many S.T.E.M careers,” Mason explains.
Through partnerships with San Diego Unified School District, Escondido Union School District, San Diego Mesa Community College, San Diego State University, University of San Diego, and University of California – San Diego, Mason is creating a pathway for students to pursue STEM majors and future employment.
“I bring a degree of urgency to my partnerships with these organizations and others. We need to bridge the gap in access to STEM education for the youth of color across the country,” she continues, “We have to pay it forward, be altruistic, and work collectively to create a vocational pathway for underrepresented students in STEM fields.”
Over the next 3-5 years, Mason will be working to establish Treobytes as an innovative company and expand its partnerships beyond colleges and universities into the tech industry.
“As women of color, it’s important that we work tenaciously, collectively so that we all move forward as a community, as tomorrow’s leaders.”
To learn more about Treobytes and to get involved, visit https://www.treobytes.com/
