Year: 2015

NAMES GIRLSTART A “BRIGHT SPOT IN HISPANIC EDUCATION”

WHITE HOUSE INITIATVE ON EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE FOR HISPANICS NAMES GIRLSTART A “BRIGHT SPOT IN HISPANIC EDUCATION”

(AUSTIN) – Today, the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics announced Girlstart was named a Bright Spot in Hispanic Education. The designation, given to Girlstart for its investment in key education priorities for Hispanics, is tied to the release of an online national catalog to identity notable Hispanic-serving institutions.

According to the Initiative’s announcement, timed for the commencement of Hispanic Heritage Month, the catalog is being published “to leverage these Bright Spots to encourage collaboration between stakeholders focused on similar issues in sharing data-driven approaches, promising practices, peer advice, and effective partnerships, ultimately resulting in increased support for the educational attainment of the Hispanic community, from cradle-to-career.”

“We’re honored to be recognized by the Initiative for the work we’re doing with Latina students throughout the nation,” said Tamara Hudgins, executive director for Girlstart. “Be it our work in Central Texas, our national outreach via the Girlstart ‘to Go’ program, or our expansion of after school programs in Central Texas, Houston, and the Rio Grande Valley, it’s been important for us to inspire young Latina students toward futures that involve STEM studies.”

More than 230 organizations across the nation are included in the catalog, reviewable on the Initiative’s website, www.ed.gov/HispanicInitiative. (You can find Girlstart’s entry via this bitlink: www2.ed.gov)

ABOUT GIRLSTART

Girlstart, founded in Austin in 1997, is the only community-based informal STEM education nonprofit in the nation specifically dedicated to empowering and equipping girls in STEM, through year-round programming that promotes girls’ early engagement and academic success in STEM, encourages girls’ aspirations and persistence in STEM education and careers, and incubates a talented and diverse STEM workforce. Its innovative, nationally-recognized programs include after-school and summer camps for students, professional development for teachers, and community and online STEM education outreach programs. Girlstart cultivates a culture where risk is rewarded, curiosity is encouraged, and creativity is expected. As a result, Girlstart girls are connected, brave, and resilient. Girlstart makes girls more successful, and inspires them to take on the world’s greatest challenges.

TO BE RECOGNIZED AT GAME CHANGERS ANNUAL LUNCHEON ON SEPT. 2

GIRLSTART ANNOUNCES 2015 WOMEN IN STEM AWARD HONOREES, TO BE RECOGNIZED AT GAME CHANGERS ANNUAL LUNCHEON ON SEPT. 23

(AUSTIN) – Girlstart has announced the recipients of its 2015 Women in STEM Awards, honoring women who have distinguished themselves in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers and have been inspirational to girls seeking to pursue STEM education and STEM careers.

The award recipients will be honored as part of Game Changers, Girlstart’s annual luncheon event, which takes place this year on Wednesday, Sept. 23 at the JW Marriott Hotel (110 E. 2nd), featuring Jacqueline Fuller, director of Google.org (which provides more than $100 million yearly to support tech innovators making transformational impact in areas such as education, development and renewable energy), as this year’s keynote speaker.

Honorees include:

Alice Brooks and Bettina Chen, Co-Founders of Roominate, a Bay Area company specializing in a “unique blend of building, circuits, design, crafts, storytelling, and creativity” geared to “inspire the next generation of innovators;”

Laura Bosworth, CEO and co-founder of TeVido BioDevices, a biotech startup that uses innovative 3D printing to create custom breast implants and grafts, made from a woman’s own cells, for reconstruction after cancer treatment;

Nasrin Rezai, GE Capital’s Global Chief Information Security Officer and head of Corp. Security & Compliance Officer for the industrial GE businesses;

Runi Duvall, this year’s Alumna Honoree, who participated in the inaugural Girlstart program and went on to earn a Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering and a Masters degree in Construction Engineering and Project Management from The University of Texas at Austin. She is currently the Senior Construction Manager for Hanger, Inc., the nation’s leading provider of orthotic and prosthetic patient care and rehabilitative solutions.

Sponsorships are still available for Game Changers, and a limited number of individual tickets are still available. More information on the event, including more on the award honorees and a list of current sponsors, is online at www.girlstart.org/support-girlstart/annual-luncheon.

ABOUT GIRLSTART

Girlstart, founded in Austin in 1997, is the only community-based informal STEM education nonprofit in the nation specifically dedicated to empowering and equipping girls in STEM, through year-round programming that promotes girls’ early engagement and academic success in STEM, encourages girls’ aspirations and persistence in STEM education and careers, and incubates a talented and diverse STEM workforce. Its innovative, nationally-recognized programs include after-school and summer camps for students, professional development for teachers, and community and online STEM education outreach programs. Girlstart cultivates a culture where risk is rewarded, curiosity is encouraged, and creativity is expected. As a result, Girlstart girls are connected, brave, and resilient. Girlstart makes girls more successful, and inspires them to take on the world’s greatest challenges.

at 2015 Girls in STEM Conference

Hanger, Inc. to Showcase Prosthetic Tail, Made Famous in 2011 Feature Film Dolphin Tale, at 2015 Girls in STEM Conference

(AUSTIN) – Girlstart is pleased to announce that Hanger, Inc. will showcase the prosthetic tail and liner it created for Winter — the famous dolphin from the 2011 feature film Dolphin Tale — at this year’s Girls in STEM Conference on Saturday, April 11th.

2015 marks the tenth anniversary of Girlstart’s annual Girls in STEM event, which will be held at Travis High School (1211 E. Oltorf). The conference will bring more than 450 4th-8th grade girls from throughout Central Texas together for hands-on STEM education sessions led by 80 professional women working in STEM fields at Austin-area companies.

Sessions at this year’s conference will give girls the opportunity to perform DNA isolation on strawberries, create an adhesive similar to what’s used in tape, and build a city out of candy, to name just three of the fun, hands-on, creative activities showing girls the range of experiences available in STEM careers. In addition, all the girls will participate in an opening session in which they will create their own prosthetic tails, modeled after the one Hanger created.

“We’re thrilled to be able to involve Hanger, Inc. in this year’s event,” said Julie Shannan, Deputy Director of Girlstart. “The prosthetic tail used by Winter in Dolphin Tale is an amazing technological achievement that also happened to play a role in a movie that many of our students know and love. This conference is all about showing girls what’s possible with STEM to change lives and make the world a better place, and Hanger is allowing us to feature a familiar example of that.”

This conference, part of the Expanding Your Horizons network, is one of the longest-running programs in Girlstart’s ever-expanding array of STEM education programs geared toward girls.

Girlstart, founded in 1997, is the only community-based informal STEM education nonprofit in the nation specifically dedicated to empowering and equipping girls in STEM through year-round programming that promotes girls’ early engagement and academic success in STEM, encourages girls’ aspirations and persistence in STEM education and careers, and incubates a talented and diverse STEM workforce.

For more info about Winter the Dolphin and how the Hanger Clinic (the division of Hanger, Inc., specializing in orthotic and prosthetic services and products) helped outfit her with a prosthetic tail, visit the page about Winter on the Hanger Clinic’s website: www.hangerclinic.com/success-stories/winter-the-dolphin/Pages/default.aspx.

For more info about Girlstart and its Girls in STEM Conference, visit this page on the Girlstart website: www.girlstart.org/our-programs/girls-in-stem-conference.

in advance of SXSW Interactive Hall of Fame Award next Tuesday

Girlstart launches its #GrowGirlstart campaign in advance of SXSW Interactive Hall of Fame Award next Tuesday

(AUSTIN) – Girlstart has launched a brand new campaign, #GrowGirlstart, in advance of Girlstart Executive Director Tamara Hudgins receiving the SXSW Interactive Hall of Fame Award at the festival’s Interactive Innovation Awards next Tuesday evening.

Girlstart has launched the campaign to highlight the upcoming expansion of Girlstart STEM education programs across Texas and across the nation. The campaign asks participants to declare, via social media channels, why they want to help Girlstart expand by using #GrowGirlstart in their posts. The campaign website page, which includes testimonials from young women who are on trajectories toward successful careers via their experiences in Girlstart programs, is viewable at www.girlstart.org/growgirlstart.

The web page for the campaign specifically notes plans for expansion to Dallas, Houston and the Rio Grande Valley, as well as plans for national expansion. Hudgins will make an initial announcement about those plans next Tuesday during the award ceremony, and Girlstart plans to provide regular updates on the organization’s growth. While Girlstart has taken summer programming throughout the nation in recent years, its after-school programming – which has grown to serve more than 1200 students at 50 different schools – is still principally concentrated in the Austin metro area.

“We’re looking forward to another SXSW Interactive Conference, and we’re honored that SXSW is making STEM education for girls part of this year’s conversation via this award,” said Hudgins. “The GrowGirlstart campaign we’ve launched is intended to show that there is a broad show of support for creating STEM education opportunities for girls. By reaching more girls, we have the opportunity to dramatically impact the STEM pipeline, which is how we’ll best achieve bringing more talented women into the STEM professional community.”

In addition to its presence at SXSW Interactive, Girlstart participated in the SXSWEdu Expo earlier this week, geared towards educators and school administrators, and SXSWCreate, geared toward what SXSW terms “hackers and DIYers.”
Girlstart, founded in 1997, is the only community-based informal STEM education nonprofit in the nation specifically dedicated to empowering and equipping girls in STEM through year-round programming that promotes girls’ early engagement and academic success in STEM, encourages girls’ aspirations and persistence in STEM education and careers, and incubates a talented and diverse STEM workforce.