2021 - A Year in review
TThe Tech-Girls mission is to empower girls to imagine and achieve their future dreams in our tech-savvy world. To fulfill this mission we work with educators and partners to provide training, resources, and relationships needed to support girls and young women on their STEM journey. COVID-19 continued to offer challenges, but also opportunities to try out new things. Here are some highlights from 2021:
- Kicked off a series of online workshops for girls in 5th through 8th grade, including Design, Code, and Stitch, Empathy and Game Design, Computational Modeling, and Robot Design.
- Brought the 8th annual Bio-Med Tech-Girls back in person in August. Highlights included behind-the-scenes tours of the UVA Link Lab and UVA Biomedical Engineering labs, hands-on challenges, and special guests Dr. Homa Alemzadeh, UVA Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Jeff Saucerman, UVA Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Eileen Krepkovich, Research Scientist at Barron Associates.
- Partnered with Key to Learning to create the Robot Design Challenge kits, geared toward getting 8-14 year olds access to hands-on robotics related activities at home and through local non-profits. In August, we purchased supplies for Key to Learning to create and distribute 200 kits through the Boys & Girls Club as well as local libraries. In December, we purchased supplies and held a kit packing party with Charlottesville Women in Tech members to provide 100 kits to C4K.
- Joined SWENext during EcoHacks, a beginner-friendly virtual hackathon for 14-18 year olds.
- Helped educators create equitable computer science experiences through the Charlottesville Computer Science Community, a research-practice partnership (RPP) with Charlottesville City Schools, the University of Virginia, and C4K.
- Formed the Tech-Girls Committee of Charlottesville Women in Tech (CWIT) with a mission to help the board plan and coordinate Tech-Girls programming that aligns with CWIT’s mission. Committee members include Jessa Campbell, Katie Breaud, Sarah FitzHenry, Fang Yi and Kim Wilkens.
- Continued to be a source of information about local and global STEM-related activities and events through the Tech-Girl Monthly, Summer STEM Guide, social media and website.
