By Alexaundra Zanella | Project Manager
At the end of the first workshop at our g4g Day @Abuja in Nigeria, a young girl delicately broke off pieces of spaghetti, analyzing the exact size and shape before carefully putting them between marshmallows to create the third and final layer of her tower - an engineering masterpiece! The workshop leader surveyed all the girls’ structures, congratulating them on their strong design ideas before she posed a question: what was the most challenging aspect of building a tower with only spaghetti and marshmallows as materials? One girl said that it was understanding how to support the tower; another said that it was deciding on the best design. And what was the most interesting part of the workshop? That same girl who was so careful in her creation, shyly raised her hand and confessed that she had always known she wanted to go into medicine, but now she knew that she wanted to be an engineer. That moment of inspiration was her favourite part!
We find inspiration all around us every day, but those moments where inspiration meets insight are certainly ones to remember. In our very FIRST launch in Nigeria, 100 girls aged 11-15 put that to the test with fun, hands-on activities on chemistry, neuroscience, coding, physics and more at the Education Resource Centre!
In fact, these past few months have been full of science & technology inspiration in BIG ways...
“Everything starts with a spark of inspiration, which leads to something… BIG!” A perfect message for an exciting opening to the 7-day adventure promoting and engaging girls in STEM in Mumbai, India this past October. We teamed up with our global partner, Covestro, and Nehru Science Centre to engage over 1000 girls overall in the region!!! All of us were so impressed with the creative ideas and questions from the girls as they pondered the future impact of technology.
From there, we had a fantastic day with 100 bright and enthusiastic young women at our global partner Nokia's R&D Bangalore location. With enthusiastic STEM role models, the girls had the chance to dive into 5G technology, Internet of Things, virtual reality, DNA exploration – and a special workshop by our partner Stanley Black & Decker on creativity and engineering.
That same week, a member of our team went to Brazil for our 4th annual g4g Days @Ouro Branco where 185 girls extracted their own DNA, learned about spectroscopy, explored human DNA extraction, dove into mathematics, and created their own electric circuits! One of our favourite moments actually came after the event when one of the attendees, Julia, wrote us explaining, "When my teacher said to us that we were going to make a school trip only for girls I thought that the trip would interesting but I got surprised when we got there because it wasn’t only interesting, it was inspiring, captivating, fascinating and so meaningful for me, I mean it! This project opened doors for me. Today I started thinking about a lot of things I can do in my life that I had never thought before." How absolutely amazing to hear!!
STEM inspiration followed us to Moscow, Russia where 100 girls dipped into polymer putty & more at g4g Day @Moscow in partnership with Covestro and the Science Festival Nauki. We also had the chance to engage over 200 young boys and girls at g4g Day launches in Brooklyn and Queens, New York, USA! And we had the opportunity to engage 25 girls at a unique event at the European Parliament in Brussels, showcasing libraries as modern tech hubs.
Giving a greenlight for girls doesn’t just mean inspiring them in STEM – it's also about continued support and encouragement in all that they do while sharing how STEM connects to the world around them in new ways. And this happens all because of you – our wonderful supporters – who continue to generously give and share everyday.
In just a few months, we engaged over 1,700 girls – a new & AMAZING record!! Congratulations and a huge thank you for helping us get there every single step of the way!
And the best part? We have excited greenlight girls waiting for us in Brussels, Shanghai, and Madrid in the next few weeks... so stay tuned :)
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