Sooner than you know, it’ll be time for another You Be The Chemist!® program, aimed at instilling K-8 students with understanding and appreciation of the sciences.

It’s a great program that we’re happy to be a supported of in California, but we also have to salute anyone supporting STEM education and promotion efforts, and more and more politicians and public figures are stressing the importance of education in the vital sciences as being critical to our future competitiveness on the world stage.

The message may be sinking in, as this study from the Pew Research Center seems to indicate:

34% of Americans say they would encourage high school students to get jobs in a STEM-related field, such as medicine or health care (19% say they would suggest a health-related career) or technology (14%). Again, enthusiasm for this career choice varies by age – but in this instance, adults ages 30 and older are more likely than those younger than 30 to promote the virtues of STEM fields (36% vs. 23%).

A recent Presidential Memorandum directed the Department of Education to advance STEM education as a priority, setting a goal of dispensing at least $200 million per year in grant funds to supporting STEM, with a particular focus on computer science education.

Promoting STEM is the kind of bipartisan cause that national leaders should, of course, get solidly behind. In the personal care and beauty industries, STEM is obviously of huge important. And that’s why some of the biggest and most innovative members of the private sector are driving STEM awareness and action.

It’s a mouthful, but the L’Oréal USA For Women in Science (FWIS) fellowship program is a terrific example of how companies are supporting STEM in the U.S., and also helping to publicize leading women scientists as strong role models for the next generation.

The program awards five postdoctoral scientists each year with grants of $60,000 apiece for their contributions in science, technology, engineering, and math. Over fourteen years, the program has awarded 65 postdoctoral women scientists over $3 million in grants.

Another leg of the program awards Changing the Face of STEM (CTFS) mentoring grants to former fellows in the Women in Science program, supporting their work with $2,500 apiece to help fund new or existing mentoring projects in their communities, administered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), L’Oréal USA’s official FWIS partner.

As STEM education programs increase in importance and support across more and more communities, they’re providing an excellent avenue for young minds of both genders and every ethnicity or background to embrace their chance to be part of America’s productive, innovative and world-leading future.