Empower young women in Nepal to be leader in tech

As part of the nine month fellowship every fellow had to conduct a session to the school level students of the public school that includes:

1. Hour of Code
2. Career Counseling in Technology
3. Internet security

The Hour of Code is a one hour session on introduction of computer science using Scratch platform. The main intention of this program is to introduce problem solving and coding concepts to students at their young age. This is really important to bridge the gender disparity in technical field by introducing computer science to the grassroot level. Similarly, in career counseling, fellows help students to explore the career opportunities one can get in the field of technology. They also help them unfold the pathways to pursue computer science, engineering and IT for higher education. Lastly, in the internet security session, fellows shed light on cyber ethics to be mindful of while using social media and how one can stay safe while using the internet.

First of all, we conducted several ToT sessions to the fellows on how to lead these sessions and curate content for school students. This covered information on event planning, dealing with potential challenges, structuring one-hour sessions, necessary preparations, backing up data before sessions, contacting schools, and post-event follow-up. Additionally, fellows also learned about the Scratch, a platform, and built their own project using the Scratch tutorials. They explored Scratch flow, created projects, experimented with various blocks, and showcased their projects for others..

Then, our fellows fromed and lead their own team to conduct schools activities a 14 public school at lumbini province impacting 346 students among which 294 (85%) were girls and 52 were boys. The sessions were mainly conducted for students in grades 8 to 10, as well as for higher secondary students (grade 11 and 12) with diverse backgrounds, including management and education streams. About 78% of the students’ demonstrated an increase in knowledge on computer science and coding, while 85% showed increased awareness of online safety after the session.

This session was not only fruitful for students but was also learning step for our fellows about project planning, execution, collaboration and team building. This also allowed fellows to give back to their community and contribute in tech education directly aligning with their field creating ripple of change in lumbini. And with this 14 fellows have already completed their school activities; Hour of Code, Internet Safety session and Career counselling to secondary-high school students, encouraging them to choose tech for their higher studies sowing them possibility and opportunities in tech world along with teaching them how to use and navigate internet safely.  

Links:

• A fellow sharing experience on leading school activities
• Another fellow sharing her achievement
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