Three Filipinas are recipients of Women in STEM scholarships awarded under the ASEAN-UK Supporting the Advancement of Girls’ Education (SAGE) Program and the British Council Women in STEM Scholarships.

Both scholarship programs seek to address gender disparities in access to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.

Maria Andrea Kristina Onglao received a scholarship from the Imperial College London for a MSc Environmental Data Science and Machine Learning course.

Meanwhile, Mikaela Gail Santos and Laravill Lanohan were named scholars to the University of Bath for MSc Biotechnology (Healthcare Biotechnologies) and MSc Biotechnology (Sustainable Biotechnologies) courses, respectively.

Onglao, Santos and Lanohan were among the 24 women awarded scholarships across Southeast Asia.

According to the World Economic Forum, women account for only 29.2 percent of the STEM workforce globally.

The ASEAN-UK SAGE Program is the United Kingdom’s flagship education program in the Southeast Asian region aimed at improving foundational learning outcomes in basic literacy and numeracy, supporting girls and marginalized groups to access education, and breaking down gender barriers to digital skills and employment, thus empowering young women to flourish to their full potential.