GIRLsmarts Workshops celebrated its 11th year by reaching out to Grade 7 Girls
2014 marked the 11th year since the inception of the GIRLsmarts program, and the three workshops that were offered this year were a phenomenal success. Coordinators Hasti Seifi, Natasha Jaques and Arianne Dee led a team of 55 student volunteers to provide two full days of programming activities for 160 Grade 6 girls on UBC Vancouver campus. Participants got a chance to try out fun activities on topics ranging from robotics and user-interface design, to programming their own games using Scratch, and building web pages with HTML.
2014 also marked the launch of the Grade 7 GIRLsmarts workshop. UBC Computer Science Department and international software developer SAP Canada have joined forces to deliver a brand new technology workshop for Grade 7 girls. The workshop was hosted at SAP in order to allows participants to experience a real world technology environment.
“We know this type of programming works,” says Anne Condon, head of the department of Computer Science at UBC. “This partnership is a tremendous way to grow GIRLSmarts and hopefully help realize more of Canada’s untapped scientific potential.”
Darriel Dawne, who together with Stephanie Redivo and Jennifer Waldern spearheaded the project at SAP, says "What sparked all of this was the SAP target of having 25% of women in leadership positions by 2017. I started digging into 'why we're not there yet' and found out that there is an alarming lack of women entering tech programs in universities, because around middle-school girls start dropping off the 'tech track'. I wanted to inspire girls to continue to explore technology and see that they have a role to play in shaping our future."
Over 120 SAP volunteers, with the help of 20 UBC student and staff volunteers, put in countless hours designing, implementing and testing four hands-on activities and coordinating the logistics of the workshop. On February 15, 60 Grade 7 girls gathered at the SAP Vancouver headquarter to enjoy a full day of hands-on activities, tours and demos. They were inspired to explore technology by learning the basics of programming, building interactive games, mixing music, and exploring how user experience and user interface work.
The participants were so excited and inspired by the end of the day that when handing back her feedback form, one girl said "I hope you don’t mind I needed to give you a 6 out of 5" and parents already wanted to know how their girls could stay involved or participate in more programs. The volunteers were just as inspired by the girls and have expressed interested in continuing with the program.
Read about Grade 7 GIRLsmarts:
