Give girls a greenlight in STEM around the world!

As the weather turns colder here in Belgium and the lights look just that little bit brighter, it’s a moment where we feel a particular sense of wonder and reflection. Taking stock of all the transformative stories that have been exchanged this past year through our work reminds us of the words of Maya Angelou: Everybody is worth everything. We believe that there is power and importance in connecting to just one girl to change her future, and we listen to that story she shares every single time. We think of Austeja, our new g4g Project Manager who attended one of our first Brussels events as a high school student more than 10 years ago and got inspired to become a biologist because of the female role models that demonstrated she could. We think of that one young woman in Pittsburgh who looked around the university where we were hosting the event – a venue that embodied a circular economy – and whispered, I want to be a student here. And we think of the little girl in Mexico City who, just a few days ago, got a chance to create polymer worms with polymer chemists and see her own potential differently.

Everybody is worth everything. And we are grateful that you believe, as we do, in our mission to encourage more women and girls in the STEM subjects. There is an abundance of potential for the next generation to help our planet and people become more knowledgeable, resilient, and cooperative – and we can’t wait to continue being part of those next stories!

But before we get ahead of ourselves thinking about all that’s to come, we are excited to share more of our favourite stories from these past few months:

g4g STEM Exploratoria with the Avantor Foundation at KU Leuven, September 17

In this brand new g4g program, we invited students aged 15-18 to go on a secret mission to design an invention for the Lab of the Future! Inspired by the g4g STEM design process, girls worked together to solve mission possible challenges while exploring potential career paths for their future studies. Through hands-on STEM experiments, rapid ideation, and prototyping, girls developed inventions that took them to the far reaches of the universe and pitched them to a team of experts, with one team walking away with the grand prize for the most outstanding idea!

g4g Day London with AIG at the Science Museum, September 30

Our female STEM adventurers aged 14-21 immersed themselves in hands-on experiments, learning how to design and prototype using spaghetti and marshmallows, how to discover and mitigate risk through an interactive board game, and how to make alternative energy out of fruits and vegetables. In our World Café-inspired design challenge, we also explored future careers and how they link to invention and innovation. They also had a chance to connect directly with industry professionals throughout the day, and got a chance to explore the amazing museum!

g4g Day Pittsburgh with Covestro at Chatham University, October 11

Heading across the ocean to the US, on October 11 the g4g team travelled to Pittsburgh to engage 125 girls, 40 volunteers, and more than a dozen teachers in a day-long series of hands-on STEM experiments at g4g Day Pittsburgh with Covestro at Chatham University. Throughout the day, we explored and discovered biodiversity with aquaponics, sustainability with solar thermal design, chemistry with polymer worms, the science of baking bread outdoors, and more—all led by Covestro employees and Chatham University graduate students. Check out this amazing recap video to feel the energy coming through your screen!

Mission Possible Inspiration Session with Covestro, October 3

One week before the event, we invited girls in Pittsburgh to join our g4g Mission Possible Inspiration Session with Covestro. This interactive hour online gave girls the opportunity to learn from Covestro and g4g leaders, ask questions to help challenge their thinking, and draw out a prototype to a challenge around safely capturing water while camping. (Full disclosure: the middle school girls had FAR more inventive solutions to this challenge than the adults on the session and gave us all such hope for the future!)

g4g and AIG at the Manchester Science Festival, October 28

At our station, the g4g team and AIG volunteers challenged our young visitors to redesign and rethink the most unexpected elements of their lives and explore their inner inventor! Tickle hands, a dance house for homeless people, and a fluffy and floaty chair were just a few of the 250 inventive solutions our 3,351 young visitors came up with to tackle their everyday challenges.

g4g in the classroom: KIS, Seoul, and European School IV, Brussels, November 10-11

On November 10 and 11 we had back-to-back days of g4g in the classroom on 2 continents! At the European School IV in Brussels, g4g led 150 primary school kids through workshops on bath bombs, polymer worms, human DNA extraction, DIY robots, and lava lamps! At the same time, our Founder, Melissa Rancourt, led Elementary, Middle and HS classes at the Korea International School by sharing the g4g story, discussing engineering career paths, and engaging the students in design exercises to Design their Future.

g4g Broadcast: Science, you had me at Hello on Potential with AIG, November 29

As part of Giving Tuesday, it was our pleasure to host an episode of our broadcast all about maximizing and uncovering your potential. With the help of Laura, Chief Information Officer at AIG, Ana, an underwriting graduate on the Cyber Team with a passion for marine biology, and Ellie, AIG Cyber Underwriter, we had an amazing session full of inspiring stories, breakout sessions where students could ask career questions and advice, and activities designed to get students imagining their future career. A shoutout to the Channing School and Alexandra Park School in London that joined us!

g4g Day Mexico with Covestro, December 6-7

We were thrilled to partner with Covestro once again to bring our g4g Day to life in Mexico City! Hosted at the Covestro premises, we welcomed 120 girls aged 11-15 to join Covestro role models in a day of workshops, including polymer worms, slime, fruit batteries, and sustainable paper planes. One of our volunteers summarized it perfectly: “I want to do my bit to motivate and empower the new generation in STEM; we need to reduce the gender gap and with small actions we can achieve it little by little. Also being the mother of a girl, I would like that she and the girls of her generation have better development opportunities!” It is with the help of volunteers like this that we can make the difference in a girl’s life.

So, what transformative stories are we looking forward to sharing next?

Our growing g4g team will be in a number of places – both in person and online – as we welcome in the new year. Stay tuned to hear more about our upcoming events in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and so many more to come!

And as always, thank you for sharing your generosity with us the past few months. All your donations contribute to the work we do around the world, where we remind girls every day that everybody is worth everything. Wishing you a magical moment to bring in the New Year!

All the best,

g4g team

Aerodynamics tells us how objects move through the air, and in the case of our g4g events these past few months, the way objects flew through the air linked to clean energy, design, and sustainable future inventions! Our team traveled from India to Netherlands to Australia to the US engaging over 875 attendees in hands-on science and technology learning to ignite their wildest dreams and help them soar. After all, when you believe that Anything is Possible, what else can you do? From global hackathons that helped communities access water in a more sustainable way to astronomy lessons in Canberra, to technology learning with our Fellowship scholars, we’ve had an incredible few months to share with you. As always, we deeply appreciate your generosity that makes our programs like these possible.

On May 10, we had the pleasure of going to Harbour International School in Rotterdam to lead fantastic WORKSHOPS for 200 girls and boys in primary school. With 4 g4g team members, we ran workshops on lava lamps, magic milk, Scribblebots, polymer worms, non-Newtonian fluid, chromatography, bath bombs, and human DNA extraction. We had the pleasure of meeting all of the kids in an assembly discussing the importance of science and showing some of our favorite inspiring STEM demos.

On May 13, we launched a special episode of our broadcast with Vodafone Luxembourg, WWT, and the Kenyatta Trust on the theme of Transformationwhere we invited schools in both Luxembourg and Kenya to join in for a moment of STEM EXPLORATION and inspiration. 100+ students from two continents had a chance to ask questions, interact with speakers and did a creative experiment. We especially loved seeing their unique and creative ways of making a piece of paper hold a book – our interactive challenge activity. A shoutout to the Thika Girl’s’ Karibaribi Secondary School in Kenya and the International School of Luxembourg for their participation – as well as some amazing inspiration from our speakers Leah from World Wide Technology, Mabel from Vodafone Business, & LaTasha from SES Satellites.

And of course, we were thrilled to complete our GLOBAL HACKATHON with Solvay which ran from May 16-May 20!! This virtual hackathon was a first-of-its-kind for g4g with the hackathon challenge of making a community more accessible to water. With over 40 young women taking part from Brazil, Spain, Belgium, US, Canada, South Korea, and India, and 15 invention submissions, we can’t wait to share them all. We had the chance to recognize 9 of the most outstanding inventions on a final broadcast on the theme of Community on June 22 where we had welcoming words from g4g, Solvay, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and Ewha University in South Korea. You can check out all the submissions on our summary video here – and we congratulate our Rising Star Winner was Veda Ramakrishnan who amazed us by her innovation and design thinking. We are proud to showcase her invention called OCEANAGEN which was inspired by the hemodialysis machine used by people with weak kidneys. Inspiration can come from anywhere, we never know! Her invention uses osmosis to remove salt from the water and turn it into potable water, and gives coastal communities an alternative source of clean, safe drinking water.  

In addition, our team launched the SOLVAY INNOVATOR’S HUB as part of our g4g Lab – an online platform that asks: what if learning and school were different? We are so happy to have 90+ kids going through 5 incredibly fun and hands-on modules and to have over 857 kids in our g4g Lab overall! They will have a chance to learn about Smart Cities, Innovation, Alternative Energy, Water, Food, and more – all inspired by Solvay materials and expertise.

From there, we went to Circleville Elementary School in the New York area on June 2 where we hosted an incredible ART AND SCIENCE NIGHT. We had an amazing opportunity to provide the prizes for the scavenger hunt participants and make their night even more special! What a great way to share STEM love with our community!

On July 13th, we travelled to Jaipur, India, to visit a Computer Literacy Centre where 12 young women are learning to use computers as part of the g4g FELLOWSHIPS PROGRAM. At our Meet the Scientist session, their faces lit up as they heard words of encouragement from Melissa Rancourt, Founder of g4g, Ilham Kadri, CEO of Solvay, and Solvay scientists. They then practiced booting up a computer, firing up the browser, turning on their personal hotspot and navigating the internet. With support from Solvay scientists, the girls listened to career stories, learned more about lightweight and innovative Solvay materials especially in the field of agriculture, and were encouraged to dream big. At the end of the day, our project manager led the girls through an experiment to make their very own paper plane, where they wrote their dreams and fears on them and sent them flying! With learning around aerodynamics, design thinking, and prototyping new inventions, the girls were thrilled to explore concepts that were new to them.

From there, we jumped to a school in Vadodara, India to lead students through our Global Hackathon program in-person on August 4th! Students from across the school joined the opening conversation as 5 amazing SOLVAY SCIENTISTS explained a day in their life and showed some of the science that they work on every day. The Solvay scientists spoke to the girls in Hindi and Gujarati about science and their careers, igniting moments of inspiration and motivation that encouraged the girls to be curious, inquisitive, and to know that Anything is Possible! Then, it was time for designing. The girls sketched and shared their knowledge about where water comes from in their community, which helped them later design solutions to challenges in water purification, transportation, and storage. It was a touching moment to see over 160 girls create such imaginative designs in just one day and to see how they felt more confident in themselves and their ideas as a result.

And from India, we traveled across the US and Canada to help CDK Global, a leader in the automotive industry, with their INTERNSHIP program. Starting on June 21, g4g worked with CDK Global to engage 99 interns to create a community impact activity that did not need to include an in-person presence. Our team led the interns through 3 inspiration sessions to help them ideate, design, and communicate their community engagement activity to an audience of their choosing that related to science, sustainability, and the mission of CDK. The interns worked in groups and individually to design and implement activities such as creating an ant farm that is exhibited at a local library, building an activity to help the elderly, educate kids in their community on STEM in virtual meetings or app, or working with their local middle schools to help a encourage picking up trash in their neighborhood. Check out the most outstanding activities here!

To round out our past few months, we hosted a 2-day G4G DAY CANBERRA event with the most creative girls! On August 21st, we inspired 160 girls in Canberra in collaboration with Girl Guides ACT & SE NSW - STEM to dive into the world of science. From understanding the nature of mathematics through a card game to building mechanical computers powered by marbles, the girls had an opportunity to get hands-on with STEM. The girls made polymer worms, helicopter designs, and much more while learning about buoyancy, hydrodynamics, chemistry, electricity, and magnetism. They truly showed us that #AnythingisPossible. What a fantastic experience! A massive thank you to all of our partners who helped us to organize this fun and engaging STEM event for girls in Canberra - Girl Guides ACT & SE NSW - STEM, Girl Guides NSW & ACT, National Science Week, Inspiring Australia - National Networks, The Australian National University, Defense Force Recruiting, Geoscience Australia, and Vikings Group.

We look forward to sharing more with you soon, and thank you for all that you do to support our mission in inspiring more girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.