Girls tech program a big draw
IBM Research in Yorktown Heights is strict about who can participate in the annual Girl”™s Go TechKnow initiative.
“This year, we had nine IBM daughters on the wait list,” said Sarena Meyer, business transformation executive at IBM and a Girl”™s Go TechKnow program coordinator.
Just having concluded its seventh-year run, Meyer said this “year we will have exceeded our 200 mark” in terms of the number of girls participating in the science and tech-driven camp.
About 30 enroll each year.
“We do hands-on activities in chemistry, math and created a whole program around software development and computer engineering,” she said. “We”™re looking to identify and help women who have aptitude, very diverse financial and ethnic backgrounds and show them the opportunities that are out there for them.”
Program selections are made in the wintertime and “we pick school districts based on their need for role models.”
IBM executives who teach program modules essentially volunteer their time.
“Probably half are repeats,” Meyer said. “Some module teachers have been doing this since they were barely out of Ph.D. programs. They see the future and they know they”™re inspiring the girls to be like them. The girls see what they can do with their abilities in math, science and technology.”