About Us

Our Mission

STEM PASS Foundation provides financial and social support to students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds pursuing a career in STEM. We aim to ease access to educational opportunities in STEM by providing support during and leading up to the admissions process. We support students at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels.

Background

Vast socioeconomic diversity exists among those pursuing a career in the fields of science, medicine, and engineering. For example, in a survey of Canadian medical students, 62.9% of respondents had a household income >$100,000 CAD, compared to 32.4% from the census population.¹ Despite institutional efforts to address the income gap and make STEM more accessible to students from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds, these students remain underrepresented. Ultimately, the lack of diversity in STEM fuels a workforce that is unrepresentative and less equipped to meet the needs of Canada’s diverse population. For students lacking a strong financial safety net, the costly admissions processes, lack of social connections in the field, and other circumstantial stressors often create barriers to their pursuit of higher education in STEM.