The Dallas flagship event took place this week at Texas Instruments, along with 100 other Girl Powered workshops spanning across the United States and the globe. These events coincided with the International Day of the Girl, adopted by the United Nations in 2011 to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.
“I’ve experienced the powerful life-changing STEM path a young woman sets out on when she is offered a chance to manage her own robotics team, taught to write code, mentored through the engineering design challenge, and introduced to positive female role-models and mentors,” said Vicki Grisanti, senior director of communications at the REC Foundation. “These opportunities should be open to all students. Girl Powered is critical to establish a community of support where we value equal participation and a diversity of ideas and perspectives.”
“TI is proud to support Girl Powered by opening our doors to the hundreds of STEM-inspired students in the Dallas area event with 75 employee volunteers who are equally passionate about inspiring STEM in future leaders,” said Peter Balyta, TI president of Education Technology and vice president of Academic Engagement and Corporate Citizenship. “There is a huge opportunity to grow the STEM workforce by addressing factors that deter all students, girls in particular, from pursuing these highly rewarding careers. TI leverages our community relationships, as well as employees' commitment to making a difference, as we work to increase the pipeline of students interested in STEM and to reach girls.”
The Girl Powered Flagship Event kicked-off with a panel discussion with technology thought leaders. Following the Q&A was a series of hands-on STEM activities for the students to try out including hacking a musical greeting card, a gak experiment, VEX IQ coding and speed build exercises, and the opportunity to drive competition robots. The panel discussion portion of the event was webcast out to the nearly 100 other Girl Powered events and can be viewed here, www.facebook.com/vexrobotics/videos. Event photos can be found here, www.flickr.com/photos/vexrobotics.
