In its fourth year, the "Lead Like a 501 Girl" initiative continues to encourage young women and girls to build on their passions and explore opportunities in information technology.
And that's exactly what they did today at the Ministry of Education's annual ICT Day event. Jomarie Lanza reports:
ICT is an area of study where you don't find many women working, but the Ministry Of Education hopes to change that with their annual Girls in ICT event. Each year these teenaged girls come from all over the country to engage in Information and communication technology challenges, encouraging them to work together to problem-solve. This year's theme is "Girls Shaping The Digital Future," and the Director For Science And Technology, Namrita Balani spoke more about how much the initiative has grown over the years.
Namrita Balani, Director of Science & Technology, MOECST
"So girls in ICT is celebrated every 4th Thursday in April every year. The official date is April 23rd next week but we are celebrating today and normally this all started because we realized that there is an underrepresentation of females in ICT. I am a girl in tech. When I graduated from UB it was just 3 of us females and I started the work force, I was the only female in my unit and now I am the director. We started this as a way to help expose, encourage and support girls in Tech. This year we have done 3 before, we did 2 in San Ignacio, last year was in Spanish lookout and this year we have some really cool challenges set up. There are 4 challenges: cryptography, so they will have to decode the patterns they have the screen that will allow them to enter in their Chromebook. Challenge 2 is a little thing with logic, and then 3 and 4 are the ones in other room happening. There is a drone challenge so you have to code the drone through block programming to fly into the course and get points and then there is the robotics challenge as well."
35 schools are participating this year, with 140 students in attendance. Among those students are the teachers who tagged along to help them secure some winning prizes.
Namrita Balani, Director of Science & Technology, MOECST
"The teachers like the past 3 years were saying that they wanted to be apart of it and they come and they want to also compete so this year we do have the teachers also competing to have great prizes. And this year I am really excited for prize number one because it is going to be a scholarship offer for an associates degree in IT at the university of Belize so every team is made up of 5 students. The students are randomized so no 2 girls from the same school are at the same table in encourages them to meet other girls, network and figure out how to work the challenges together."
It's an eventful experience for these girls, so much so that some even ask to come back and volunteer, like 16 year old Diane Ortega who has in interest in IT and hopes to branch off and pursue her studies further in cyber security
Celeste Garcia, Student
"The first time I came it was pretty fun and I was kind of nervous but I slowly got into it and just playing the games with the girls and getting to know them and then all the helpers here they are so kind and so like facilitating you get comfortable really fast with programming and all that stuff."
"Today I am here in a helping capacity instead of as a student so I am here to volunteer and just help the girls."
Reporter
"Why do you think it is important for girls to engage in ICT?"
Celeste Garcia, Student
"Usually ICT is like a male dominated field so we need more women in it because it goes with that saying that women and men tend to have different perspectives on things and so we need more women because they tend to think analytically and all of that so we need more women in ICT. It is also important for young girls to see that there are other girls who are doing this so they have role models to look up to."
And for other first timers, they are simply excited to be here and network with other girls while learning more about ICT:
Diane Ortega, Student Ocean Academy
"I came here to learn a little bit more about ICT, It's really fun as soon I got here a lot of the girls are speaking and it is really awesome to be here."
"But I am looking forward to being more interactive with people in tech because it is something that I want to learn."
