My Story
Since I was little, I was always fascinated with skyscrapers. I remember myself looking at them and wondering how they were built. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to have a female role model – my grandmother. When she was my age, she was growing up in a small village in Soviet Ukraine, but my grandma already had big dreams. It was difficult to become an engineer in USSR, especially for women. When my grandma was 17, she left her village and entered the most selective university in Ukraine. At that time, she was one of the few women studying in the STEM field in her university, and later she was one of the few female engineers at her laboratory. My grandmother's story was always inspiring to me. I know that without her and her exciting stories about STEM, I would never dare to dream of becoming an engineer.
I know that many girls don't have a role model as I do. I believe that every girl must have a person who can motivate her and inspire change, especially in areas like STEM where women are underrepresented. I don’t want any girl in any country to experience the same hardships as my grandmother did. I don’t want girls to be discouraged by the current condition of STEM careers in their country or by the lack of women in these fields. I want them to feel supported and realize that everything is in their hands.
My Project
EN.G.IN (Engineering. Girls. Innovation) is a two-month-long program for middle school girls, their families, and teachers that will run from April to May 2021. The goal of the program is to provide fun engineering experience to girls and spark their interest in STEM. Our robot Engin and his robot-dog Spark will make the project as fun as possible. Girls will also have a chance to meet more than 50 peers from other cities, states, and even countries! Recognizing the importance of role models, EN.G.IN also works with the potential role models for our participants. The programming for families and teachers will provide useful materials and training to help them support their girls in their future STEM careers.
The girls will meet online once every two weeks to learn about one of the four types of engineering covered during the program (biochemical, software, civil, and aerospace engineering). Experienced female engineers will lead those sessions, do fun engineering activities with girls, and share all the secrets of being an engineer. Our mentors will also work with the girls for two weeks following the online session. During these at-home sessions, girls will continue learning about engineering through fun activities and collaborate with their peers. Girls will also have a chance to hear from successful female engineers/tech leaders who are in the front of their fields. The time commitment will be pretty low, so girls are able to combine EN.G.IN with school.