Girls Can Stem is a non-profit organization which aims to inspire more young girls to get into the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. As there is an evident gender gap perpetuated by stereotypes and restricted access to resources, Girls Can Stem shares inspiring stories of women in STEM, as well as tips, resources, projects and more. Their goal is to encourage young females from all around the world to enter the STEM fields.
The organization is based in Greece, but they want to impact not only their community, but from females that are all around the world. They hope to accomplish this through social media who don't have access to such resources in their area.
The founder of Girls Can Stem is Hara Moraitaki, a 15-year-old from Athens, Greece. Hara has always been very interested in the STEM fields, taking many STEM classes and other STEM extracurricular activities. However, she noticed how there are only a few girls compared to boys who participate in these STEM activities. Hara qualified for the bootcamp of the National Programming Olympiad; she quickly noticed that she was the only, and first ever, girl there. In addition, she noticed as she was interning for an engineering company, there were no female workers. This motivated her to support and inspire more girls to enter the STEM fields. In order to do this, she created Girls Can Stem to prove that the STEM fields are not only for males—females can flourish in the fields as well.
The organization was launched only a few weeks ago, and have already established multiple partnerships with other like-minded organizations. Through these partnerships, they hope to host STEM-related competitions and online classes on STEM topics. Girls Can Stem also recently uploaded their first project which connects members with STEM professionals. They are currently creating a team and have gotten applications from over 10 countries.
Girls Can Stem plans on launching their website in a few days, which will have numerous resources to get involved in the different fields of STEM including robotics, math, physics, coding, and more. The website will also offer a page that list recommended classes that are available online. In addition to these resources, the website will have stories of inspiring women who work in the STEM fields. Girls Can Stem plan to potentially offer summer programs as well as internship programs where members members would work with STEM professionals for a limited time.
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