In the 2019 Meet and Code edition, Ukrainian nonprofit “I will” from Mykolaiv organised a five-hour workshop “STEM girls with families” for 6 to 13 years girls. These girls were either accompanied by their mums or grandmothers. Together where they had an opportunity to build LEGO We Do and EV3 robots and make Scratch projects.
Why “Girls DO IT”?
I WILL: We participated in the Meet and Code Initiative for the second time as it is a fantastic opportunity for nonprofits to organise an event offering digital activities to a variety of stakeholders in our community.
Last year only two girls attended our event, but we saw how they were excited to write their first codes and build robots. Since then, we have looked for new opportunities to organise more events for girls. That is why this year we applied for the micro-grant in the category, “Girls Do IT” to demystify coding, innovation and support girls.
We sincerely believe that a value such as equality is formed during childhood, and girls need to develop their digital skills in preparation for their future. We postponed the initial event date to October, 11th to link it to International Day of the Girl. By creating a party atmosphere, we tried to color girls’ new experiences with bright emotions.
The first part of our event was animated by a special guest, who is a Certified Life Coach. She invited our participants and encouraged dialogue surrounding topics such as stereotypes in the professional world. Then she showed a video demonstrating that any profession is open to any gender.
«I was very impressed with the Workshop “STEM girls with families”. I invited our two 70 and 75-years old grandmothers to attend this event with their granddaughters. You should have seen the interest and inspiration with which they were constructing a first robot for the first time in their lives’!) Girls love creating new things at any age. It was fun, interesting and informative. Now I recommend robotics and coding to all my friends having girls».
Olena Kopysova, Alisa's mom
How One Workshop Can Open a Door to a New World
In 2018, “I will” organised the first Meet and Code event “We Do and Scratch”. One of two girls that attended that event, Margarita was particularly inspired. After the event she became the member of our First LEGO League (FLL) Junior team. Margarita’s team qualified for the National Final and was awarded the prize of, “Bright project presentation”. It was her first success.
This year Margarita continued her FLL, “career” by becoming a member of I Will STEM Girl’s team, which consists of 10 girls. This team competed at the regional qualification on February 8th, 2020. This is just one small example of how one workshop can open you a new door to a new world.
Both, I WILL and Meet and Code team is very proud of Margarita’s continued success, interest, and growth in coding.” Let more girls do IT!
