Category: Press Releases

GIRLSTART ANNOUNCES LINEUP FOR 2012 GIRLS IN STEM
CONFERENCE AT UT MAR. 31, FEATURING AUSTIN WOMEN IN STEM
CAREERS TEACHING FOURTH THROUGH EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS

(AUSTIN) – Girstart, in its continued efforts to empower and equip girls in STEM education, is hosting the 7th annual Girls in STEM Conference on Saturday, March 31, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., on the University of Texas at Austin campus.

The event, part of the Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) national network, is a one-day conference created especially for girls in the 4th through 8th grades. In previous years, the Austin conference has brought as many as 500 students together to learn about STEM careers from professional women throughout Central Texas.

The conference will feature workshop facilitators working in STEM careers with a number of Central Texas companies and organizations, including AMD, Applied Materials, Austin Regional Clinic, Dell, IBM, Texas Gas Service, and the University of Texas at Austin.

The conference allows attendees to attend three separate workshop sessions on a range of STEM-related subjects, as well as an opening and closing session for the entire group. Participants at this year’s opening ceremonies will design a vehicle prototype that can land on a fast moving asteroid, and will then share their creations with NASA through Girlstart’s social media outlets.

“We’re excited to be hosting the Girls in STEM conference again this year,” said Tamara Hudgins, executive director for Girlstart. “This conference allows us the opportunity to inspire many girls to study STEM subjects at a crucial period in their educational journey, by bringing in women with amazing real-world experience to share with them.”

There are a limited number of spots remaining for the conference registration is available online at . More information on the conference is available on the Girlstart website at.

Girlstart has been selected as a Dell YouthConnect recipient in the United States
Dell today announced a $3 million investment to expand its global giving program YouthConnect in the U.S. Twenty-four organizations based in the United States have been selected Dell Youth Connect recipients. More than 20,000 young people in Tennessee, California, Minnesota, Oklahoma, New-Hampshire and Florida will soon have access to state-of-the-art technology.

Girlstart is proud to have been chosen as one of the Dell YouthConnect recipients in the US. Dell YouthConnect is the company’s signature giving program designed to help bridge the gap between the technology “haves” and the “have-nots” by placing Dell technology into underserved communities and working with non-profit organizations to teach information and technology skills.

With Dell YouthConnect’s support, Girlstart will offer an intensive suite of scalable STEM education programs that provide technology access and STEM learning opportunities to K-12 girls, school communities, and families. Thanks to Dell YouthConnect, Girlstart will provide 5,000+ participants with access to technology and programs that build girls’ critical thinking skills, innovation and creativity, collaboration and communication skills, and basic technology literacy. Program activities include;

1. Girlstart After School: Girlstart After School is a high-impact intervention where we provide free, school- and community -based programming every week throughout the school year at high-need partner schools.

2. Girlstart Summer Camp: Girlstart Summer Camps are week-long technology and science programs, designed to provide intensive technology access and introduce participants to hands-on, experiential STEM activities.

3 Girlstart Summer Camp ‘To Go’ Expansion: In 2011 and 2012, Girlstart will bring our Summer Camp programming beyond the Girlstart STEM Center in Austin, offering camps in Dell locations across the country.

4. Public STEM Education: Girlstart’s Public STEM Programming represents a diverse framework of community science and technology learning opportunities that provide high-quality technology access, STEM programs, mentoring, and support to thousands of children and families annually.

“We are elated to be selected as a Dell YouthConnect grantee. With Dell YouthConnect’s support, Girlstart will be able to dramatically expand its programs in the Central Texas region, as well as providing high-quality STEM Summer Camp experiences to girls in communities across America. Thanks to Dell YouthConnect’s leadership and commitment, more girls, particularly at-risk girls, will gain high-quality STEM programming and access to Dell technology.
The impact of this gift will have a ripple effect for years to come,” said Tamara Hudgins, Girlstart’s Executive Director.

Dell will provide the organization with grant funding as well as its latest technology. As importantly, a local Dell Champion will manage the deployment and upkeep of Dell systems, and local team members will have the possibility to volunteer their time to support our needs.

To learn more about the Dell YouthConnect program, visit www.dell.com/youthconnect

Grant to support Girlstart’s regional expansion
Girlstart is honored to announce, thanks to a generous grant from Google.org, that more girls in Central Texas–as well as schools in two new cities–will be able to participate in Girlstart’s programs, which are dedicated to providing STEM education for girls.
Girlstart is one of several dozen organizations receiving grants from Google.org at the end of 2011. The grant is part of over $100M in total charitable giving from Google in 2011. Google.org’s $100,000 grant to Girlstart will permit expansion of Girlstart After School, reaching an additional 500 girls over two years. In addition, Google.org’s grant
will provide for scholarships for girls to attend our Girlstart Summer Camp, as well as provide for two weeks of full scholarship Girlstart Summer Camp ‘to Go’ in two new locations outside Austin. Information about these new cities will be announced in early 2012.
The grant award follows a recently released study on out-of-school time STEM education for girls in the U.S. that showed Girlstart to be a national leader. The study was commissioned to identify leading models for STEM education in the nation. Girlstart’s high-quality programs have the widest reach –serving more than 500 girls in 21 schools across Central Texas, with more schools to be added in Fall 2012 – of any after-school STEM program in the nation. In addition, Girlstart After School is distinct among
comparison programs by securing the involvement of parents, as well as each whole school community.

Girlstart will share a number of its STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education-based experiments, activities, and other pieces of knowledge from its 14-year history of providing groundbreaking STEM education for girls ranging from third graders to high school students. The Girlstart blog debuted today as a contributing organization to the TalkingScience blog (www.talkingscience.org).

Girlstart’s initial post can be found here:
www.talkingscience.org/2011/07/engineering-the-earth-exploring-wind-energy/

“This is a fantastic opportunity for us to reach STEM-minded audiences through this collaboration with the Science Friday Initiative, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it,” said Julie Shannan, Deputy Director of Girlstart, overseeing the organization’s efforts to deliver weekly content to the blog. “This is particularly important to us, as we look to expand beyond our strong base in Central Texas to reach girls all over the United States.”

This year, Girlstart, through a partnership with the AMD Foundation, will be providing STEM summer camps in California, Colorado, and Washington State, the first time that the organization has hosted summer camps across the nation. Girlstart also recently, through a grant provided by NASA, designed STEM education curriculum designed for nationwide adaption.

“We’re delighted to have the opportunity to highlight the great educational resources Girlstart has created,” said Leslie Taylor, Web Editor of TalkingScience.org. “TalkingScience aims to encourage young people to get excited about science, so Girlstart, and their mission to empower and equip students for success in STEM is a great fit for us.”

The first blog post from Girlstart will share a wind energy experiment in which students outfit toy cars with turbines to test the effectiveness of wind energy.

The TalkingScience blog is part of the Science Friday Initiative’s outreach efforts. The Science Friday Initiative is the non-profit partner of the Science Friday radio show airing weekly on National Public Radio.

TalkingScience.org is intended to cultivate enthusiasm for science and a desire for scientific literacy in the general public, to encourage young people to pursue STEM subjects in school, get involved with STEM-based extracurricular activities and pursue careers in STEM fields, and to support educators (teachers and parents) in their efforts to increase scientific literacy in the next generation.

For more information on Girlstart and its programming and resources, visit Girlstart’s website at www.girlstart.org.

To see the TalkingScience blog and more on the TalkingScience initiative, visit the official website at www.talkingscience.org/.

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Phil West, Orange Cone Agency
512.769.3838, phil.west@orangeconeagency.com