TechGirlz

Opening opportunities in technology for young women and inspiring them to become innovation economy leaders is one of the great opportunities of our time. The TechGirlz program ignites a love for technology in middle school girls. Our free, open-source workshops inspire curiosity, impart confidence, and build community as the foundation for the application of technology throughout a girl's career and life. Over the next five years, Creating IT Futures will engage in a capacity building program that will allow us to increase our TechGirlz workshops from our current level of 5,000 girls per year to 10,000-15,000 girls per year, with a goal of 100,000 girls having participated in the program by the end of 2025. The result will be an ever-increasing pipeline of female tech leadership that will begin to erase the gender disparities in technology.

Attracting women to STEM/Tech has proved among the most difficult challenges to solve. Reasons are numerous, including: the cultural bias against girls as they demonstrate skills or aptitude, few technology courses in schools, other teaching priorities, lack of expertise to teach the subject, a narrow view of options in tech careers (not just coding), and stereotypes of technologists. All have contributed to steering girls away from exploring technology as a life skill and/or career path.

Challenges facing girls in technology extend to the workforce. A persistent gender pay gap leaves women making only 78 cents for every dollar earned by men (and less than 60 cents on the dollar for women of color). This is happening at a time of rapid workforce transformation, where the number of unfilled technology jobs is approaching 1million, even as only 25% of jobs in computing occupations are held by women. One of the clearest ways to erase these disparities is by creating a path beginning in adolescence that leads to higher earning lifetime wages. In today’s world, any path to higher earnings for a meaningful segment of women begins and ends with technology training.

TechGirlz ignites a love for technology in middle school girls. Our free, open-source courses inspire curiosity, impart confidence, and build community as the foundation for the application of technology throughout a girl's career and life. Our goal is to create a skilled and passionate community of women using technology to shape the world around them.

Workshops are hands-on and designed to engage girls with no previous experience. Participants spend three hours at each workshop, with 10 to 20 students per workshop. We have incorporated into our program hundreds of tech industry professionals who lead workshops and share their experiences. Together, we presented more than 200 workshops to more than 5,000 girls nationwide in the 2018-2019 school year.

TechGirlz serves middle-school girls ages 11 to 14. We anticipate that approximately 45-50% of our participants will be girls of color, and 30% will be from families with income levels that qualify them for free or reduced lunch.

The TechGirlz curriculum pushes the envelope for redefining what young girls can – and should – be learning about technology. By delivering TechGirlz workshops to middle-school girls, we are inspiring a new generation of girls to tech leadership, and building a bridge for girls to the technology jobs of the future. 

Long-term, the vision of success for TechGirlz is a world where middle school girls feel confident enough in their skills and themselves to take additional technology classes in high school and college and go on to careers in the tech jobs of the future. Ultimately, we will know we are successful when the gender disparity in STEM and technology begins to disappear.

TechGirlz programming aligns well with MIT Solve’s focus on educating girls’ in STEM and preparing them to enter the workforce. We believe the path to that economic empowerment begins in middle school, the age when most girls begin to opt out of technology related fields. It continues through high school, college and into a woman’s professional career. From video games to space exploration, modern work requires technology familiarity beyond coding, and our program participants will be there to fill the need. That is why we offer the most diverse range of topics and instructions through TechGirlz workshops and camps.

Unlike other organizations engaging youth in technology, TechGirlz does not focus primarily on coding. Our experience shows that girls have much broader interests and connections to technology. We have continually asked girls for their input on technology related instruction, topics and careers. Overwhelmingly, they feel that technology is a way to solve the issues in their own lives, and they hunger to learn how it applies to their core interests. Girls want to be more than coders – they want to be technologists. TechGirlz’ research and feedback loop help us create curricula which present technology in the way middle school girls want to learn–project-based, creative and fun. The TechGirlz curriculum pushes the envelope for redefining what young girls can–and should–be learning about technology.

Since 2009, TechGirlz has been developing leading edge tech education curricula for girls ages 11-14. Because of high demand for our workshops, we developed a model to open source our curricula, documents, and procedures, calling these free materials TechShop in a Box™, and began to recruit and train tech volunteers to lead them. Today, our open source library offers more than 60 workshops on a wide range of topics from designing mobile apps, infographics and Arduino programming to robotics, building web sites and animation. Each was created using a rigorous methodology of research, curricula development, expert review, and extensive testing and evaluation before its addition to our library (http://www.techgirlz.org/topics/).

TechGirlz workshops have been presented to more than 20,000 girls in 38 states across the U.S. and 14 countries around the world. 80% of participants say they have changed their minds and now have a positive interest in a career in tech. We maintain contact with participants through bi-annual surveys, and through follow-up interviews with families. TechGirlz’ key KPIs are “did you change your mind about a career in tech” (historically, 80% of participating girls have responded positively to this question) and “would you bring a friend to a TechShop.” We also track enrollment numbers, multiple registrations, demographics and feedback of the participants and volunteers.

The TechGirlz curriculum pushes the envelope for redefining what young girls can – and should – be learning about technology. Rather than delivering ongoing instruction, our workshops provide fun, interactive, inspirational technology experiences for girls that can be presented by volunteers anytime, anywhere. In so doing, we create an accessible starting point for young girls and others to engage with technology, take control of their technological futures, and transform the diversity and gender equality of the technology industry.

TechGirlz workshops have been presented to more than 20,000 girls to date, and will be presented to an additional 5,000 girls in the year to come. Over the next five years, we will engage in a capacity building program that will allow us to present workshops to 10,000-15,000 girls per year, with a goal of 100,000 girls having participated in Techgirlz workshops by the end of 2025.

Currently, TechGirlz operates out of three permanent locations in the U.S. – Chicago, Philadelphia, and Raleigh-Durham – which will be a focus of our current year’s efforts. In the coming years, we will be expanding to additional cities and locations, as well as working with our network of volunteers to serve girls in cities and communities across the U.S. and potentially across the world. We will be working to expand the program even further over the next five years to bring in more volunteers, deeper engagement with current program partners, increase the geographic reach of our programming, and ultimately bring as many girls as possible into the program and lay the groundwork for systemic impact inspiring the next generation of female technology leaders.

In March 2020, with the arrival of COVID-19, we quickly realized that our workshops needed to both pivot online and also address the demand that began to increase with the lack of access to other in-school STEM programming.

Over several weeks starting in March, the team was able to move 60% of our TechShopz curriculum online (the total curriculum which could move online without additional devices).  Since March, we’ve seen average attendance in our workshops increase by 60%, and 65% of these new virtual workshops have had waiting lists. Demand for our summer camp programming has also increased, and four new virtual camp models have been produced and scheduled. Further, our Teen Advisory Board has been meeting virtually to share input with the staff on how to continue to optimize user experience with the virtual format. Overall, this work has been incredibly rewarding as we have seen both girls, and new corporate volunteers step forward to engage with the TechGirlz team in a time of educational need. It has, however, caused us to consider what further pivots we need to make to optimize the experience for the girls virtually, and how we need to address scaling even more quickly to meet the demand as girls look to join our online workshops from geographies that we haven’t previously served.

To meet the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis, we have adapted our workshops for remote access. We are now working to refine the delivery platform for the TechGirlz workshops for remote access and to deliver this programming to girls during the crisis and into the future. In addition, we are beginning a pilot partnership with the national PTA to connect with parents and ensure they are aware of opportunities for their daughters.. While we may not have chosen this path for changing the delivery model of our programming, the increased capacity we are developing during this period of crisis will result in more opportunities for girls to experience TechGirlz workshops and will make the program more effective and resilient to future crises.

N/A

Currently, TechGirlz has a staff of seven working on our solution, in addition to support we receive from the staff of Creating IT Futures and CompTIA and our volunteers presenting workshops in locations around the country. We also partner with school districts, nonprofit organizations and other organizations and companies to increase our capacity.

Since 2009, TechGirlz has been developing leading edge tech education curricula for girls ages 11-14. Because of high demand for our workshops, we developed a model to open source our curricula, documents, and procedures, calling these free materials TechShopz in a Box, and began to recruit and train tech volunteers to lead them. Today, our open source library offers over 60 workshops on a wide range of topics from designing mobile apps, infographics and Arduino programming to robotics, building web sites and animation. Each was created using a rigorous methodology of research, curricula development, expert review, and extensive testing and evaluation before its addition to our library (http://www.techgirlz.org/topics/). Workshops are hands-on and designed to engage girls with no previous experience. Several are available in Spanish. We have incorporated into our program hundreds of IT-professional volunteers who lead workshops and share their experience. Now, with the added program capacity CITF has added through our acquisition of TechGirlz and our partnership with CompTIA, as well as corporate, nonprofit and government partnerships we have developed and the volunteer network we have built, we are uniquely positioned to take this work to the next level.

This program will be further supported by a foundational partnership between TechGirlz and CompTIA (the national trade association of the IT industry), which makes connections with its network of IT professionals and companies; and with local and national PTA organizations (as we ramp up our partnership) which will facilitate parent involvement in girls’ tech futures.  

In addition, TechGirlz will build on partnerships with:

• Drexel University, with whom we recently completed a build out of the TechGirlz assessment and evaluation program;

• SAP, Cognizant, and TEKSystems which have funded the creation of multiple workshops, held workshops at their U.S. headquarters, and engaged with us to provide volunteers that helped implement the TechGirlz CRM system.

• Other partners who have provided consistent funding or volunteer support, including Chariot Solutions, Comcast, Medtronics, IBM, Villanova University, North Carolina State University, ORSC Girls, and Amazon Web Services.

TechGirlz is a program of Creating IT Futures that is sustained through social enterprise funding, grant funding, corporate partnerships, and volunteer engagement. All TechGirlz workshops are free and open-source, which means that they can easily be accessed by girls who are inspired to continue to explore technology at home. We also offer community members opportunities to volunteer with TechGirlz themselves, running their own workshops or organizing events for girls to get together and build community around their shared love of technology.

The annual Women in Tech Summit helps to fund TechGirlz and provides additional outlets for leadership. We are developing additional revenue generating sources and models, like our planned Girls in Tech Summit, which will build corporate sponsorship in a model similar to our Women in Tech Summit, and generate revenue for TechGirlz programming.

This program will build on our partnership with CompTIA and with corporate partners like Cognizant, TEKSystems and SAP that increase our capacity and funding to deliver TechGirlz programming. We will also seek to work with others who can provide financial support and other critical needs. This includes continued growth of our revenue-generating Women in Tech Summit, development of our planned Girls in Tech Summit, which will provide further sponsorship and revenue-generating opportunities, and continued research into other revenue generating programs and opportunities which will lead to long-term financial support and sustainability for the program over time.

TechGirlz is at a critical point in development, as we expand our curriculum, develop new partnerships, establish new offices, and adapt to the changes brought about by COVID-19. This is a time of transformation, as the rapid development of technology changes both the workforce and the fundamental structures of everyday life; we believe that this presents an essential opportunity to engage young women in the growing wave of new tech leaders. This grant funding will allow us to develop the capacity and connections we need to build the partnerships and implement the programming that will allow us to meet the moment, connecting girls to their future as technologists.

We are currently building out partnerships in each of these areas to support our work. The capacity of our organization to develop these partnerships is strong because of our robust network of current partners including CompTIA, corporate supporters, local and national PTAs and volunteer networks. We welcome any support that could be provided to build out these partnerships.

We are looking to build further partnerships with nonprofit organizations who have capacity to build recruitment, corporate partners to engage in volunteer efforts and funding, school districts that can help with delivery by bringing programming into schools, and local PTA organizations that can keep parents engaged in our programs and in their children’s futures in technology.

Our programming inspires in girls an interest in technology, setting them on the path for lucrative careers in the growing tech industry and shifting the gender disparity in STEM employment. We are preparing girls to become the next generation of technology leaders, bolstering women’s voices in one of the fastest growing sectors of today’s workforce. We will use this prize to support our expansion strategy and position the TechGirlz program for rapid expansion and growth.

TechGirlz provides innovative, engaging technological education to girls, regardless of income level or background. This prize will support our work delivering free educational modules directly to girls, helping them advance their knowledge of STEM and increase interest in pursuing tech careers. We will use this prize to support our expansion strategy and position the TechGirlz program for rapid expansion and growth.