The Gender Advancement and Parity in STEM (GAPS) program supports our work to reduce gender bias in our field. Donations to this program support a mentorship program and paid internships to people from marginalized genders and provide empowering real-world work experiences for people from marginalized genders exploring careers in biology and science.
What does “marginalized genders” mean?
The precursor to the GAPS program was 100 Women for the Wild, but data has shown again and again that when we create programs labeled and advertised as “for women,” cisgender women are more likely to apply than other women. And the statistics show that while cisgender women need parity programs, they aren’t as in need of advancement and parity programs as other genders. Read more:
Here are some stats for gender parity:
- All full-time workers had weekly median earnings of $1001 through the third quarter of 2021
- Men had weekly median earnings of $1100.
- Women had weekly median earnings of $916.
- Transgender men had weekly median earnings of $700.
- Nonbinary, gender non-conforming, or Two Spirit individuals had weekly median earnings of $698.
- Transgender women had weekly median earnings of $600.
Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics and America’s Transgender Wage Gap.
So what about in STEM, specifically?
According to research conducted, transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) students in STEM have a retention rate 10% lower than their cisgender peers. Nearly 54% of TGNC students in STEM fields reported feeling depressed frequently (compared to 15% of their cisgender peers), and 30% of TGNC students frequently sought personal counseling (compared to 8% of their cisgender peers).
Too many gender parity programs focus exclusively on cisgender women, which decreases the gender pay gap between cisgender men and cisgender women, but it greatly increases the already large gender pay gap between cisgender people and everyone else.
We have chosen to focus our efforts on all women, transgender men, nonbinary, gender non-conforming, and Two Spirit individuals who need help achieving advancement and parity. And we have chosen to not just work around recruitment and parity, but also provide an avenue for people to connect with others, so they have the support they need to succeed.
The GAPS Workforce Development Program
Rocky Mountain Wild offers at least one paid internship a year to people from historically marginalized genders. These interns would assist our biologists in one or more projects in the field, assist our support staff in advocacy projects, or create a new program of their choosing. Read more:
This position has been filled for the summer! Stay tuned for future internships.
Colorado Bat Watch Summer 2024 Intern
Time Commitment: 32 hr/week for 13.5 weeks (negotiable)
Compensation: $20/hour with paid time off benefits (vacation, health and wellness)
Classification: Short-term, full-time, hourly employee
Work location: Remote with travel around the Front Range, Routt and Pike-San Isabel National Forests
About Colorado Bat Watch:
Colorado Bat Watch (CBW) is a community science initiative, developed by Rocky Mountain Wild, in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Colorado Natural Heritage Program and the North American Bat Monitoring Program, to meet multi-agency statewide bat research and monitoring needs. North American bats face unprecedented threats including white-nose syndrome, habitat loss and fragmentation, wind energy development, pesticides, and climate change. Colorado is home to 18 bat species, but little is known about the population status of most of these species. Thus, there is a pressing need to expand bat monitoring in Colorado, in light of the unprecedented threats faced by bats, and especially with the detection of the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in Colorado in 2022. Colorado Bat Watch aims to address this need by using community scientists to collect baseline data on the locations and characteristics of bat roost sites, and monitor bat colonies to improve understanding of the status of local populations. The goals of Colorado Bat Watch are to 1) provide reliable data to multiple agency partners and resource managers to better meet their bat monitoring needs and help inform bat conservation efforts on our public lands and open spaces; and 2) build public support for bat conservation through community outreach and education.
Rocky Mountain Wild is looking for a full-time, temporary intern to help implement Colorado Bat Watch. This position will work with direction from Rocky Mountain Wild’s conservation biologist and conservation ecologist.
Major Duties and Responsibilities:
- Communication and Outreach – Create tabling materials, table at community events, recruit volunteers and develop new partnerships, especially with underrepresented communities.
- Events – Plan and advertise bat walks, plan and advertise bat colony counts (at least 2), co-lead bat walks with bat experts, and co-lead bat colony counts with experts.
- Field Work – Scout bat colonies to determine suitability for colony counts and write bat colony site descriptions.
- Equipment Management – Create, distribute and maintain equipment kits for volunteers.
- Research and Writing – Help develop a white paper on feasibility of doing acoustic monitoring through community science.
- Volunteer Training and Management – Assist in developing a system for volunteer management, communicate with and manage volunteers, advertise events to volunteers, develop training materials for volunteers, create a volunteer survey to get feedback from volunteers on colony count methods, and work with a translator to translate materials into Spanish.
Qualifications:
This internship is intended to provide entry-level experience. We encourage all interested applicants to apply, regardless of prior experience.
- Love of bats
- Interest in learning about Colorado’s 18 bat species
- Experience or interest engaging the public at community events
- Willingness to help lead bat walks and colony counts with bat experts
- Interest in cultivating new partnerships on behalf of Colorado Bat Watch
- Willingness to conduct informational interviews with bat experts
- Experience or interest in volunteer management
- Good writing, research, and organizational skills
- Ability to work autonomously with regular check-ins with Rocky Mountain Wild staff
- Willingness to travel along the Front Range and to the Routt and Pike San Isabel National Forests, potentially including overnight trips
- Willingness to hike up to 2 miles to potential roost sites to look for bats at sunrise or sunset
- Valid driver’s license
Other Information:
This position is a full-time, temporary position. It will run from the date of hire for at least thirteen and a half weeks, depending on hours per week worked. Travel is required and access to a reliable vehicle is ideal (mileage will be covered at the IRS standard mileage rate). The intern will be paid $20/hour with a week and a half of paid vacation time and up to 15 hours of paid health and wellness leave.
The GAPS Mentorship Program
The GAPS Mentorship Program connects emerging and more seasoned environmentalists and scientists from marginalized genders together to network, support, and build capacity. Read more:
The Gender Advancement and Parity in STEM (GAPS) program supports our work to reduce gender bias in our field through mentorship and internships for people from marginalized genders. The mentorship program connects emerging and more seasoned environmentalists and scientists from marginalized genders together to network, support, and build capacity.
The mentorship program seeks to:
- Connect emerging and seasoned environmentalists and scientists from marginalized genders and help those connections flourish through networking and educational opportunities.
- Using the connections of the mentorship participants, provide increased access to organizations and opportunities that may have otherwise been out of reach.
- Provide a closed forum for mentorship participants to share resources, concerns, questions, advice, and support (through Slack).
- Develop a diverse network of environmentalists and scientists from marginalized genders in the Southern Rocky Mountain region.
To participate in the mentorship program as a mentor:
The mentorship program is on hold for the summer. But please continue to sign up if you would like to be part of the program in the fall!
We are inviting seasoned environmentalists and scientists from marginalized genders to submit themselves as mentors for this program. Please complete the mentorship survey to:
- Select how you’d like to interact with the program (options currently are: connecting one-on-one with a mentee, having your contact information shared with all mentees so you can support them as they need, participating at network events, or offering your expertise in workshops or trainings),
- How you want to share your contact information,
- What skills and expertise you have,
- What skills you are interested in learning together through the program, and
- Identity questions (some mentees may need to speak with someone on personal matters in the workforce that are tied to their identity or intersections. We are asking mentors, if they feel comfortable, to answer some identity-related questions for matching purposes).
To participate in the mentorship program as a mentee:
The mentorship program is on hold for the summer. But please continue to sign up if you would like to be part of the program in the fall!
We are inviting emerging environmentalists and scientists from marginalized genders to submit their interest in being a mentee in this program. Please complete the mentee survey to:
- Select how you’d like to interact with the program (options currently are: connecting one-on-one with a mentor, reaching out to mentors who have provided their contact information for this purpose as needed for help or advice, participating at network events, or attending workshops or trainings),
- How you want to share your contact information,
- What skills you are interested in learning together through the program, and
- Your gender identity (optional).
Mentees will remain mentees for one year, at which time, they will be invited to join as mentors! If a mentee would like additional time in the program as a mentee, they are also welcome to do that.
What is the difference between a mentor and a mentee?
We think of mentees as folks emerging in the field and mentors as folks who are more seasoned and have been working in the field for five years or more. However, we understand that sometimes more seasoned folks may feel they would benefit more as a mentee or mentees feel they have enough experience to be a mentor. We leave it up to the individual to decide.
We do want to encourage folks who are more seasoned to sign up as mentors. We recognize that a lot of folks who are from marginalized groups may feel “imposter syndrome” in what they know. But we hope to learn and heal from that together! But please, sign up in away that is comfortable for you.
Support the GAPS Program
All aspects of the GAPS program are made possible by donors like you! Donate today to close the GAPS tomorrow!
