Stanford Science Penpals
For teachers
Find resources on our program and learn how to become involved
If you are a teacher interested in becoming involved in our program, we’d love to hear from you! We are looking for teachers from underserved areas, especially rural schools or schools with high percent free and reduced lunch.
The basic commitment for teachers is to send and receive one letter per month (October – May) for each student, all packaged in a group shipment. At our end, we scan-read both incoming and outgoing letters to check for ‘red-flag’ language, and we ask that our teachers do the same for students’ safety. We will also help our teachers administer an exit survey to determine the effectiveness of our program.
We try to make letter writing as easy and affordable for our teachers as possible. We provide shipping labels and packaging materials each month, and at the beginning of the year, we send letter-writing materials such as pens and markers, colored paper, and fun science-themed stickers!
We have found that our program works best when most or all of the students are in the same classroom and are provided with at least a small amount of time in-class to read their letters and begin writing their replies. It is also usually more fun for our scientist penpals to work with students who are excited to have a penpal and learn more about science and STEM careers. However, we understand that not every student thinks science is awesome from the get-go, and we view it as our responsibility to help them see how cool science is!
Please contact us if you have any additional questions, and we look forward to working with you!
Important spam warning: We are a volunteer organization and we will never ask for compensation for our services.
Teachers and students love Stanford Science Penpals!
"WOW! My students just read through their letters -- WOW. They are beyond excited!"
"MINE is a chemist!”
"EVERY single student had a HUGE grin on their face the entire class period. Thank you so much for everything you're investing into this. The impact is already palpable."
"I can relate so much to her!”
"There is SO much excitement bursting from my classroom when your letters are involved!"
"She likes soccer AND hiking! It's like, me too!”
"My students are LOVING the experience."