rience Girl Scout STEM programming—and the countless girls who don’t—I cannot help but think of myself at their age. What if I had gotten more hands-on STEM experiences? What if I had been taught persistence and the value of failure? What if I had been supported by female role models engaged in STEM? Growing up, I was part not only of that 74% of girls who are interested in STEM, but also part of an unfortunately large subset of that percentage who were never properly nurtured and encouraged, whose interests never translated into meaningful pursuit. If things were different, perhaps I’d be in the STEM field today.
But I got lucky, though—I love my job. I get to create incredible, life-defining STEM experiences for girls as they learn about their own passions. My passion, and the vision of STEM at Girl Scouts River Valleys, is that every girl can transform her “maybe” into an “I got this!” Our engagement with girls in STEM will impact their perceptions of the field and of themselves for the rest of their lives.
Girls are ready, so let’s rise to meet them.
Hannah Gilbert is the STEM program coordinator at Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys. Girl Scouts River Valleys provides life-changing STEM experiences to all girls and aims to build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. You can learn more about GSRV here.