At STEM Horizons, we believe that access to quality tech education should be available to all students, regardless of their school or background. Our mission is to help K-12 students achieve their aspirations of entering the STEM field by offering personalized tutoring, engaging after-school workshops, and informative seminars. In partnership with the Humble Independent School District, we also host annual hackathons designed to provide students with hands-on experiences, real-world challenges, and valuable career guidance, preparing them for success in the ever-evolving tech landscape.
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OUR HISTORY
When computer science student Kaylee Scanlin made the jump from high school to college, she realized something shocking: despite taking numerous coding classes throughout high school, the curriculum did not at all prepare her for the kind of tasks she would be doing as an engineer. There was a massive difference between what she was learning in her AP computer science courses and what she would go on to learn in her programming fundamentals courses in college, which were much more advanced. Furthermore, hunting for an internship during college required a variety of skills that she had never developed in the classroom.
Dylan McKee also noticed a disparity between two other groups of students from friends at church—homeschool students and public school students. Despite pursuing higher education at a rate that rivals publicly schooled students, homeschooled students of all ages often struggled to find STEM-centered extracurriculars to foster their curiosity about mathematics and sciences.
Motivated by the disparities they observed, Kaylee and Dylan founded STEM Horizons with the goal of equipping high school students with the essential skills for success in the tech industry. This includes not only technical skills such as web development and junior entrepreneurship, but also critical soft skills like public speaking, leadership, and confidence-building.
The Reality of Tech & College Admissions
The reality of the tech industry nowadays is that it is getting increasingly competitive. According to CNBC, although the number of jobs in tech continues to grow exponentially, the number of computer science undergraduates continues to skyrocket with it. Instead of forcing students to try and fit into a mold that is inauthentic to them to try and 'win' at college admissions, we want to help them realize their full potential as future leaders, engineers, and entrepreneurs by arming them with the knowledge they need to succeed in college CSE programs and beyond; and help their unique voice shine through on their college applications.
There's a strange phenomenon occurring in higher education today—perfectly capable, intelligent students with top grades are regularly turned away from their dream schools. Admission rates for the top public schools in Texas shrink every year, with the University of Texas at Austin changing its top 10% policy to a top 7% policy very recently. Why are these bright young students getting denied spots at schools where they could flourish academically?
The reality is that nowadays, there are thousands of students with great grades. Technology is making is easier than ever to score well on exams, and the top of the bell curve is moving up every year. Because of this, colleges like Rice, UT Austin, and Texas A&M are starting to adopt a more holistic approach to their admissions process, meaning that being a great student is rarely 'enough' anymore—to be considered competitive, students need to have extracurriculars, projects, and internship experience on their resume, all before they even graduate high school.
The Network Method: Creating Harmony
Here at STEM Horizons, we use a combination of several different entrepreneurial techniques, personality tests, and the holistic network method for guiding STEM-oriented high school students through the college admissions process. Our step-by-step method for guiding students through the admissions process is completely transparent and outlined below.
This method for college applications is modeled after the holistic application process many universities have adopted. Taking into consideration the numerous different factors in a student's life, as well as the values that specific schools are after, it focuses on creating harmony and telling a story within the student's application. It focuses on five major facets of a student's application:
Academics - What are your grades like, and what kinds of classes are you taking?
Skills & Talents - What unique skills do you have a past of demonstrated excellence with?
Personal Background - What is your unique story that you can tell in your college applications?
Projects - Do you have a special passion project that you can talk about?
School Compatibility - What kinds of students are the school you're applying to looking for?
...And ensuring they are all related to the major they are applying to, the career they want to pursue, or the passion in life they would like to study. Students are evaluated in each of these five categories during our one-on-one coaching sessions.
Once they've been evaluated, we work with them in accordance with our flowchart to develop a plan for how to strengthen their applications, no matter where they are along the college application, internship-hunting, or career development process:
Identify your passion -
What is it that excites you about life?
What values are important to you?
Do you enjoy the work you're doing in your classes now?
What are you good at doing?
Do you remember a project you've worked on, outside or for school, that made you excited to work on it?
What kind of career in tech would the skills, passions, and curiosity you have now apply to best?
Evaluate where you are right now -
What grade level are you in? What is your GPA like, and what classes have you taken so far?
What classes do you struggle with, and which ones do you excel in?
How much time do you have before you start sending out college applications?
Evaluate where you want to be -
What school are you planning on applying to, if any?
What is your 1-year plan for your life?
What kind of person do you aspire to be?
Are there any passion projects you're working on that you'd like to see succeed?
What kinds of skills has this project taught you, and how would those transfer over into your career?
Create a plan to get there -
What kinds of extracurriculars, projects, volunteer experience, and internships would best benefit you right now?
What could you do that would set you apart from your peers?
How are you going to improve upon the areas of the network method that you are weak in?
MEET OUR FOUNDERS
Kaylee Scanlin
Kaylee Scanlin
Kaylee Scanlin is a full-time computer science student and an AI researcher at the Texas Advanced Computing Center at UT Austin, where she contributes to cutting-edge projects in machine learning and computer vision. Her professional experience includes internships at Qubit x Qubit, Ayoka Systems, and NASA, where she gained valuable expertise in software engineering and data science. Kaylee is also the director of education at STEM Horizon, where she develops STEM curriculum and co-leads initiatives such as hackathons and workshops to inspire and empower the next generation of tech innovators.
Dylan McKee
Dylan McKee
Dylan is a full time electrical-computer engineering student with expertise in artificial intelligence, robotics, and mathematics. He serves as the Director of Operations and Outreach for STEM Horizons, helping to co-manage the team and develop educational content in tandem with the Director of Education. Dylan is also an undergraduate researcher at Rice Nanotechnology Laboratory, President of a local chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery, and a past NASA intern. With nearly 10 years' experience in music education, he has now expanded his focus to technology education in a mission to pass on his passion to the next generation of curious students.
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