Women In Natural Sciences (WINS), a program at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, has been named one of the five winners in the UL (Underwriters Laboratories, Inc.) Innovative Education Award program. The Academy, in Philadelphia, will receive a recognition grant of $50,000 to further their work.

The four-year WINS program provides mentoring for Philadelphia high school girls to help them prepare for college and for STEM/E-STEM careers. For their efforts, which began in 1982, in reaching out annually to qualified teens from underserved families in Philadelphia, WINS also will receive the opportunity to work directly with UL employees, including science, engineering, and technical experts, in realizing the full scope of activities in their E-STEM educational programs.

Developed in collaboration with the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), the UL Innovative Education Award was open to nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and Canada that serve to motivate K-12 students about science and research through E-STEM programming and education about the environment.

Four other recognition grants were awarded, including a top prize of $100,000. An additional $50,000 recognition grant was awarded along with two others of $25,000 each.

All five winning teams met in Chicago, on Aug. 6 at UL headquarters for the inaugural ULIEA kickoff meeting and leadership summit. Joined by UL executives, guest speakers and others directly involved in sustainability and environmental work, the summit not only recognized the winning teams for their work, but also helped cultivate a network among the teams well as UL mentors.