Failure is always an option. Quitting is not.

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for their tremendous support on our recent Kickstarter campaign! We grew a lot as a team in putting together this campaign, met many wonderful scientists along the way, and even had a few articles written about us (wow!).

But unfortunately, because we have failed to reach our $10,000 goal, My Colorful Future will not be funded. As with failed Kickstarter campaigns, no backers will be charged for their pledges and we will not be fulfilling any pledge prizes.

As scientists, we are familiar with failure. Experiments fail. Grants get triaged. Papers get rejected. We understand that failure is always an option. But quitting is not! When faced with failure, we adjust parameters, we rewrite and reorganize, we improve, and we find alternate ways to succeed. What we lack in funding, we will make up for in brain power.

Moving forward

I still believe that it’s so important for kids, in particular girls and minorities, to have visible and relatable role models. At http://custemized.org/, we encourage kids to (literally!) see themselves in STEM by providing personalized storybooks that depict them in different STEM careers. But we also want kids to see that there really are people just like them currently in these STEM fields! Therefore, we are still working with current women and minority scientists in the field to teach kids about a wide range of scientific careers!

Moiya McTier is a planetary scientist working with us to teach kids about planetary science. Do you know what a planetary scientist does? Check out her page to find out!

If you are or know of a scientist interested in being featured, please contact jean@custemized.org for more information on how you can get involved. Follow cuSTEMized on Facebook to learn more about different scientific careers and for updates on when these pages will be available for personalization to feature your child.

Helping teachers help their class

Teachers strive to inspire and empower students with the confidence and skills to change the world. I recently had the pleasure of helping one amazing teacher, Melody Tsai, to do just that.

Melody initial contacted us, saying: “I initially wanted to give these books to the 10 girls in my class for an end of the year gift before going to Kindergarten. Then, I wondered what could the 5 boys in my class get. Thankfully there is a drop down menu for the boys as well! I am ecstatic! Because I am a teacher, I do have difficulty printing in colored ink as I am in a low income level school in the middle of the desert where resources to get mass colored printing can be hours away.”

…well, we can fix that! I was more than happy to print these books and ship them out to her. Melody took the time to work with us to personalize books for her entire class!

Each book was actually made by yours truly 😉

We didn’t have a box big enough to accommodate all the books so we had to use an old Amazon box!

The books arrived safety and we were glad to hear that her students liked their personalized books!

“One of the main goals that I strive for as a teacher is to inspire, empower, and to teach in a progressive way in hopes that students become positive, active members of society. CuSTEMized.org could not be a more perfect end of the year gift, as a keepsake, and a reminder that every one of my students has the power to change the world. Parents say they will keep it forever, the principal loves it, my co-workers thought it was such a great idea, my BTSA advisor loved it so much she passed the website along to other teachers, and of course the students loved seeing themselves featured as the main character of the story. I look forward to donating and receiving these spiral bound books every year!”

– Melody Tsai
Transitional Kindergarten Teacher

We have always been providing free individual books upon request to those who cannot afford it. But Melody has inspired us to expand our Book Fund program to classrooms as well.

Let us know if you’re interested in a set of personalized books for your classroom!