VRC Girl Powered Online Challenge Sponsored by Google
Girl Powered is an initiative to redefine the face of STEM by creating a more inclusive environment for all students within the robotics community. Together, with the support of the entire community, we strive to encourage equal participation of young women and men in competitive robotics. We want to use this challenge to show the robotics community at large just what it means to be a Girl Powered VRC Challenge team!
Things to keep in mind for a successful submission:
- When you hear the phrase, Girl Powered, what comes to mind? How is it reflected in your team’s approach to robotics?
- Share how your team took initiative to create a more inclusive environment that attracts a diverse group of students.
- Share how each team member tried various roles on the team (designing, building, driving, programming, strategy, awards, etc.). Explain what you learned through this experience.
- How do you believe diversity of perspective changes your robot design, your team chemistry, and even your ability to succeed?
- Who is your STEM role model and why? Does this person inspire you to have a more inclusive team/program? How?
We want compelling, engaging stories that give us insight into how you’ve taken the Girl Powered initiative and incorporated it into your experience on a VRC Challenge team. The benefit of having a diverse team becomes apparent through your individual stories.
Entries
Rosa M. Rengifo
We are Rock-G-Bots, an all-girls Team and this is our testimony.
3204E - Girl Powered Award Submission
This is 3204E's Girl Powerd Award submission, which is about what "Girl Powered" means to us as a team.
Indomitus Girl Powered
We are team 35216A. There are 4 girls on our team. Everyone on our team work hard to improve our team's design, build, code, and notebook. Our team is made up of two 7th grade girls, and two 6th. We are the only all-girls team in our school, but we encourage more females to join STEM. We taught many young girls about robotics in our Girl Scout Project. In our essay we show how Girl Powered has been portrayed in our team throughout the season, and take you through our whole Girl Powered Robotics journey.
The True Definition of Girl Powered
Girl-powered creates an inclusive environment for all genders. "The True Definition of Girl Powered" highlights my experience in VEX Robotics. Not only has my knowledge about VEX improved, but I also realized how much I've grown as a person. Starting as a timid, shy girl, I slowly learned the true meaning of girl-powered.
STEMming a Future of Equality
Title: STEMming a Future of Equality
Entrant: Amy Nguyen
Team: 2969X
G1 is an Independent Vex Robotics High School team situated in North Irvine, CA. The entrant, Amy Nguyen, describes her experience in Vex, and how, with the power of curiosity, you can change the large STEM gender gap.
How Girl Powered transforms us into the...
In this essay, we show how 5 robot loving girls, with very diverse interests, form the VRC team to continue our journey in robotics. Doing VEX robotics is not easy, it is even harder for ALL-girls, grass root teams. It is all but possible without the encouragement from Girl Powered. Also, we show how we contribute back to Girl Powered by hosting multiple robotics workshops. We are proud to be help VEX robotics more visible to girls and more inclusive to more kids who never thought they can do it before.
Girl Powered - Now, for Future
Girl Powered: Now, for future
It was the week before Thanksgiving, our last event for the year 2019. Our coach was away on a business trip, but we were looking forward to a successful competition before the end of the year!
Read our essay where we describe the aspirations of our team to prepare for solving the worl's greatest problems. Team work and success in the VEX competition are great learning step for our future. We look at the world as full of interesting things for us to discover. We are passionate and look for an adventure in learning in everything we do....
The Impact of Girl Power
Thank you for reading our essay, "The Impact of Girl Power"
Team 5509G, VHS Cavaliers
Mikaela N.
Dalton G.
Abby T.
Cassie B.
From Taking Over Towers to Taking Over STEM
This essay describes our journey from an accidentally formed all-girls team to a successful gender diverse team with all girl leaders. The enrollment of girls in our club has doubled over the last two years and will continue to grow because the word that girls are not only doing hardware and software, but also leading these roles, is spreading fast.
The Empowering Efforts of She Can Tech
2567 K is helping empower girls through assisting in multiple girl empowerment workshops and events. The women on 2567 K helped run their local robotics Girl (Em)Powered Summit by introducing the guest speakers and managing the panel. The women on 2567 K also run a computer science camp for girls called She Can Tech. For more She Can Tech information Click Here!
A New Legacy
The Girl Powered Initiative is slowly changing the mentalities of students all over the world, including team 8838C Legacy. Because of it, 8838C has been able to showcase the best of each team member, regardless of gender.
Title: A New Legacy
Team: 8838C
Entrants: 8838C Legacy (VanPhuong Nguyen, Sofia Ahmed, Ayla Kailiponi, Grace Lin, Diya Malik, Marcus Shih, and Joshua Yang)
Word Count: 1,491
More Than Just a Pretty Face
In the past, the STEM field shuns women. Males dominate the field and refuse to allow entry to any females. For decades, women fought to earn their positions as scientists, technologists, engineers, mathematicians. Their hard work and legacies contribute to the increasing rise of females. At the current moment, the STEM field no longer shuns women but encourage them to pursue a career in STEM. Although they encourage women to join, men still dominate the field, intimidating women from entering the field. As such, people turn to education systems for assistance. All levels of education from...
Robotics is for everyone
Why do we need to talk about girl power like it’s a weird thing? How has it become such a huge topic? Do people think that girls can’t do as good as boys? We have thought these things a lot and now we’re going to tell our opinion based on our experiences.
Beyond Faces
We live in a world ruled by discrimination. Here is the story of a small pocket of time, inhabited by people who built their own temporal world of unity.
El Paso Strong- Girl Powered
For the past 4 years, Eastwod has hosted the largest Girl Powered Conference in the world. But this is more than a conference to us, this is the bringing together of our community to redefine STEM.
Being a Girl in Boy's World
This is my experience over the last three years in robotics as a girl on an all girl team; the challenges I faced and how it made me grow into the person I am today. Being a girl in a sport that is dominated by boys is intimidating but has made me a stronger, more confident person.
7700R The Power in Girls
To us, Rolling Robots team 7700R, Girl Powered means giving equal support and encouragement to both boys and girls. We proudly represent this movement by being a half girl, half boy team. Everyone on our team is able to voice their opinions and ideas in contribution to the same goal: success.
How STEM Changed Me (Girl Powered Essay)
This is about how I, Angela Fang, overcame my fears to enter the STEM field due to it being a predominantly male-inclusive field. How joining a VEX Robotics team changed my outlook on everything STEM and improved my self-confidence, understanding what Girl Powered truly meant. I changed from being reserved and unconfident to someone very confident who can help lead a team and bring them victory.
Cataclysm Girl Power
The essay submitted below shows what Girl Powered means to our Cataclysm VEX robotics team.
Girl Powered
This is our entry for the 2019-2020 VRC Girl Powered Online Challenge
Moving Towards Gender Equality in Robotics
From an early age, girls are not encouraged to participate in engineering activities nearly as much as boys. Read our presentation to see how our team strives to change this.
How STEM changed who I am
Girl-powered creates an environment where all genders could work together and no one is excluded. "Female Integration in STEM" is about my experience working with different genders and how my personality changed over time. My knowledge of robotics improved greatly and I also grew as a person. I use to be a shy and inactive girl, but afterward, I slowly understood girl-powered and became more confident.
The Future Is Female
Girl powered is an empowering word used by many women around the world today. It demonstrates equality between both genders not only in the STEM field, but in our daily lives. By joining Overclock as an all girls team, we learned the hidden meaning behind the phrase girl powered.
Girl Power
This is Team 481B's submission on what Girl Power means to us. Enjoy!