Inspiration into the hands of teachers

Our organisation, greenlight for girls , celebrates our 15th year – and what better way to celebrate than to look back to our vision and long-term strategy that we set forth when we began. A quote comes to mind – and not perhaps from our usual STEM references, but rather a literary one. William Shakespeare in Midsummer Night’s Dream wrote, «Though she be but little, she is fierce». True power is not determined by physical size but by inner strength and resilience.

Why does this quote come to mind? When we started, we were definitely ‘little’ – just a handful of people, our inspiring global board, and a dream. We began ‘fiercely’. We didn’t set an annual strategy, nor a 5-year plan. No, our first step was to set a 30-year vision and strategy to achieve it.

And, amazingly enough, we’ve followed it – from then to now. We’re halfway there – and it’s time to set our next 30-years ahead. But, guess what? On this dream path, at this very milestone year, we identified the goal to provide resources and inspiration directly to teachers and their educational communities. We have been working these past years to try and test our STEM + DESIGN pedagogical methods, tools, and experiments – and celebrating the incredible outcome to inspire more than 75,000 girls across 39 countries. 94% of the girls who attend our events and participate in our hands-on activities tell us that – now – after they attend an event, tell us, «we want to study STEM!».

So, now, we feel ready. How can we then help to get these resources into the hands of their most influential role models – the teachers that are with them everyday?

Enter new g4g partnership: g4g is proud to announce our partnership and collaboration with an EU-driven ERASMUS+ funded project. EITIC-EU and g4g are working together to help inspire the future leaders of STEM!

EITIC-EU is an Erasmus+ project, coordinated by Fundación Cibervoluntarios and formed by 5 other organisations from Italy, Greece, Romania, Belgium. It is designed to inspire and empower girls and young women aged 10-16 to pursue STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) careers. The aim is to bridge the digital gender gap and demonstrate that STEAM careers are also for women. Through the visibility of female role models, success stories of women entrepreneurs and innovators, and the promotion of entrepreneurial culture with a technological approach, EITIC-EU seeks to break gender prejudices and stereotypes. The aim of EITIC-EU is to raise awareness of the importance of promoting STEAM professions among girls and women.

Resources are on their way! Together with our partners, we are creating open resources that teachers, in any setting, can use to encourage and empower their students to pursue STEM careers and paths.

Our collective goal is to get inspiration into the hands of teachers. Keep following the news of the project to find out more.