On April 17th, 2021 the Girl Scouts of America hosted a STEM Festival that consisted of hands-on activities, live events, challenges, giveaways and booth experiences. The girls that registered for the event were able to complete Girl Scout badges and award requirements. They were also able to participate in behind the scenes presentations and Q&A sections with companies including Broadway, the FBI, NASA, and Instagram.
The SWE Strategic Partners Focus Group in the Outreach Committee hosted a booth called “Ask an Engineer” that consisted of two sections. The first section was a presentation describing SWEnext and different kinds of engineering, and the second section was a Q&A with a panel of SWE engineers from different fields of engineering.
This event was a great success, with the booth attracting 651 visitors! While the Hopin platform was brand new to the team, it proved to be a great venue for hosting our panel and Q&A session. The attendees were extremely active; hardly ever was there a pause in the chat for questions. They were interested in panelists’ career and college trajectories, and overall, seemed to be genuinely excited to learn about what it means to be an engineer.
Questions ranged from asking about the college search to different types of engineers and even some thought-provoking questions about instances when the panelists felt belittled for their gender.
Additionally, SWE volunteers were phenomenal. They were prepared to answer every question given to them with extensive detail and enthusiasm. Overall, this event was an exceptional success, and SWE hopes to partner with Girl Scouts USA to volunteer at this event in the future!
