Tech-Girl Monthly: January 2022

Imagine, Discover, Create

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Tech-Girl Monthly: January 2022

A Year in Review

The 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.

We are thankful to the following organizations for their support this year: Charlottesville Business Innovation Council (CBIC), C4K, Girls Who Code at UVA, SWENext: Albemarle High School, SWE at UVA, Grad SWE at UVA, as well as the Link, Christ, Janes, Peirce -Cottler, Griffin , Saucerman, and Design Labs at UVA.

Spotlight: Tech-Girls Volunteers

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting the amazing people who make awesome Tech-Girls experiences possible by offering their time as facilitators, role models, volunteers, mentors, advisors and supporters!

Many thanks to Afnon Alabdulwahab, Homa Alemzadeh, Sonya Allen, Courtney Beach, Caroline Bertrand, Katie Breaud, Lisel Bruscia, Jennifer Burman, Jessa Campbell, Pooja Chandrashekar, David Chen, Elaine Cheng, Jennie Chiu, Courtney Christensen, Brandi Clark, IdaMae Craddock, Gigi Davis, Sarah FitzHenry, Elena Gillis, Sruthi Gopinathan, Tracey Greene, Erica Hargreave, Tom Herrick, Katie Hiatt, Travis Hite, Susan Holland, Lukas Houpt, Tricia Howell, Isabel Humphreys, Rimi Kaur, Britta Keller, Eileen Krepkovich, Najwa Labban, Julie Leonard-Duke, Stephanie Lewandowski, Robin Lilly, James Mallory, Taylor Marohl, Sherry Martin, Zach Minster, Hannah Moore, Tess Muttikkal, Chloe Norris, Jessica Otey, Camellia Pastore, Shayn Peirce-Cottier, Melissa Phillips, Aditi Prakash, Róża Przanowska, Dana Quist, Julie Quinn, Ed Radion, Karen Richardson, Nia Robinson, Noelle Robinson, Anna Rosner, Wamia Said, Jeff Saurcerman, Kala Somerville, Lisa Targonski, Juliana Trujillo, Trae Turner, Fang Yi and more who graciously gave their time and support in 2021 to help bridge the gender gap in tech in Charlottesville and beyond!

MozFest ambassador update

Get a Sneak Peek at the sessions happening at MozFest, March 7-10. Be sure to check out the Youth and Futures Zone for sessions created by youth for youth! Early bird tickets are still available which means you can secure pay-what-you-can tickets and get exclusive access to events, content, and surprises in the lead up to the festival!

Activities & Events

Live & Local

January 22 - The Reality of Game Development hosted by JMRL. Students ages 11-18 are invited to join game industry analyst and author Josh Bycer of Game-Wisdom.com for a discussion about what it’s like to work in the game industry, skills to develop, and the challenges creators face.
February 26 - University Student Taught Engineering Program (USTEP) hosted by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at UVA is a fun-filled, educational outreach program for middle school students in the Charlottesville community. Participants will have a one of a kind experience taking classes taught by passionate UVA engineering students.
March 25-26 - Capital Region Celebration of Women in Computing Conference (CAPWIC) brings together students, faculty, and industry partners to engage with research and development in computing through discussion and community-building.
March 26 - High School Visitation hosted by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at UVA is a comprehensive, hands-on program to give young women an in-depth look at the field of engineering. High school students from the state of Virginia are welcome to apply.
C4K - combines mentoring and technology to prepare youth for brighter futures. Participation is free and open to all students in 6th-12th grades who are eligible for free or reduced lunches at school.
KidsCollege@PVCC After-School Academies offers online programming Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday and in-person Saturday mornings for 3rd-12th Graders.
STEAM Discovery Academy - find after school programming and summer programming (for a fee).
Albemarle SWENext - Albemarle High School's Society of Women Engineers is a community of women who are passionate about engineering and STEM as a whole, and spreading the idea that engineering is for everyone.

Virtual & Global

January 10 (deadline) - ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing recognizes talented high school students in computer science. The intent of the program is to promote and encourage the field of computer science, as well as to empower young and aspiring learners to pursue computing challenges outside of the traditional classroom environment.
February 1 (deadline) - Sustainable Solutions Writing Contest from Engineer Girl. Write a short essay about how engineering can help meet one of U.N. sustainable development goals. The contest is open to individual girls and boys in the following three competition categories: Elementary School Students (grades 3-5), Middle School Students in (grades 6-8), or High School Students (grades 9-12).
March 7-10 - Mozilla Festival. MozFest is a unique hybrid: part art, tech and society convening, part maker festival, and the premiere gathering for activists in diverse global movements fighting for a more humane digital world. Check out the Youth & Futures space where children, adolescents and young adults help work toward a better digital future for all.
March 12 - Hacking for Gender Equity in STEM from Random Hacks of Kindness Junior. Students in grades 4-8th are invited to join Tech-Girls founder Kim Wilkens and Random Hacks of Kindness Junior as we design and code apps that highlight the importance of inspiring and engaging women and girls in STEM.
March 25 (deadline to register) - Technovation Challenge is a free technology-based program for girls ages 8 - 18. Working in teams (of 1 to 5), girls find a problem in their community and build a mobile app or AI project to help solve it. Along the way, they develop their collaboration, problem-solving, and leadership skills.
Black Girls Code - find workshops, coding clubs, and hackathons happening around the country.
CodeVA offers a variety of online and in-person (Richmond, VA) workshops for K through 8th grade students.
Girls Who Code - find clubs, summer immersion and code at home activities.
Random Hacks of Kindness Jr. - find one-day hackathons where children in grades 4–8 are matched with computer science mentors to work together to solve a charity's real-world need.
The Connectory - find an opportunity near you to connect your child to STEM learning.
TechGirlz Virtual Workshops - find free CS workshops for girls in middle school.

Get Involved!

Tech-Girls is a program from Charlottesville Women in Tech, a non-profit in Charlottesville, VA. The mission of Tech-Girls is to empower girls to imagine and achieve their future dreams in our tech-savvy world. You can help inspire the next generation of women in tech by becoming a volunteer. You do not need to be a tech expert to be involved. Come learn with the girls!

2022 Tech-Girls, This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
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