Between the years 2012-2018 I volunteered in programs designed to encourage and empower girls in high-school to learn more about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (“STEM)”, and to consider a career in the field. As part of the program, the girls are invited to visit IT companies, and meet the people who work there. Each company organizes the activities during the visit.
“Sodkot”
“Sodkot Et Tikrat Hazchuhit” (“Cracking the Glass Ceiling”) is a national program by “Kol Israel Haverim”.
[2016-2018] HCL Herzlia
[2014-2016] IBM Shefayim lab
[2012-2014] IBM Rehovot lab – “Hitechit”
Before the collaboration with “Sodkot”, the women of IBM Rehovot lab created an original program, with similar goals. We called it “Hitechit”. I had the privilege to work with two amazing women from the lab, together we built this program and coordinated the volunteers. Later on I presented the program and its achievements in several events.
Each company plans the content of the visit.
My role was to coordinate the volunteers from our company, and to plan the activities and timeline of the visit.
The main focus was to let the girls meet the women who work at the site, hear their personal stories, and learn about the different professions in the industry (developers, designers, product managers, QA…). In addition, we’ve organized hands on workshops, designed to expose them to our work process, and encourage team work, creativity, innovation and leadership.
Link:
“Hitech-it”
“Hitech-It” project was a program that we created together, the women of IBM Rehovot. I was one of three women organizers.
Each of the women who volunteered in the program was requested to prepare a presentation explaining how she got to work in this profession.
We each chose a different approach: I decided to focus on a question that bothered me a lot when I was younger – “What will I be when I grow up?”…
My role:
- Coordinated the volunteers and the plan for the girls’ visit
- designed and delivered a presentation
- built a mini website, with information about the program (HTML+CSS and a touch of jQuery)
- prepared several graphic materials for the project, such as this little vector drawing right here.
In addition, I’ve created a tumblr minisite with links to various resources online so we have have a discussion on them with the girls: