Where Your Gift Goes
Each year the DEI Endowment Committee selects one or more organizations to support underrepresented groups in Northern California. Grants from previous years are detailed below.
2025 - 2026 Techbridge Girls
In 2025-26, the SEAONC DEI Endowment Committee partnered with Techbridge Girls (TBG), an Oakland-based nonprofit that develops hands-on programs and training to inspire, educate, and equip girls—especially Black, Latina, and gender-expansive youth from marginalized communities—to see themselves as leaders and to pursue careers in STEM fields. TBG focuses on re-engineering STEM education so girls are inspired and prepared to persist toward their STEM aspirations. SEAONC’s support is being focused on a ready-to-launch Data Science & AI program in the Bay Area and a structured role model training framework.
2024 - 2025 Girls Garage
In 2024-25, the SEAONC DEI Endowment Committee pledged support to Girls Garage, a nonprofit design and construction school for girls and gender-expansive youth ages 9-18. Through classes in carpentry, welding, architecture, and activist art, they support and equip a community of fearless youth who are building the world they want to see. The SEAONC grant helped to underwrite their no-cost teen programs, which serve 100 girls and gender-expansive youth in year-round programs. Specifically, the grand funded instructor salaries and the cost of lumber and hardware for pro-bono community projects.
2023 - 2024 Grants
In 2023-24, the SEAONC DEI Endowment Committee funded a collaboration between Oakland Unified School District’s “Engineering Pathways” program and UC Berkeley’s (CEE)2 program to create an “Introduction to Structural Engineering” curriculum. Community Engaged Education in Civil and Environmental Engineering, or (CEE)2, is a first-of-its-kind program dedicated towards advancing community engagement within research, teaching, and service across CEE as well as building relationships and strengthening partnerships with underserved Bay Area communities.
2022 - 2023 Grants
In 2022-23, the SEAONC DEI Endowment Committee supported SEAONC’s broader partnership with Ignited to help fund the second annual AEC Week. The goal of AEC Week is to promote structural engineering to the public; foster diversity, equity, inclusion, and engagement within the profession; and inspire future generations of structural engineers. As part of this effort, the program showcases structural engineering and collaborations with architecture and construction through tours, job shadows, and presentations. The program coaches teachers to create lesson plans that will engage students around key concepts, career competencies, and job pathways. 70% of participating teachers serve schools that are high need and 40% serve schools with a majority of students of color. The SEAONC DEI Endowment Committee provided $4,500 to fund three teachers from underserved schools to attend AEC Week.
2021 - 2022 Grants
In its inaugural year of 2021-22, the SEAONC DEI Endowment Committee funded three $10,000 grants to three local organizations: the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). These grants were used for scholarships and other initiatives to support diversity in the structural engineering profession in the San Francisco Bay Area.
