Yes, the cookies are delicious, but what Girl Scouts is doing to shape girls to be the next generation of scientists, engineers, innovators, and leaders, is truly remarkable.
We’ve known for a while that gender diversity in STEM careers is lacking (women comprise half of the workforce, yet hold fewer than 25% of U.S. STEM jobs), and beyond a readiness deficit by gender, as evidenced in ACT’s 2017 STEM report, there is also a confidence gap for girls that starts early on in their educational journeys.
Simply put, girls can’t be what they can’t see.
Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas and Texas Instruments (TI) and the TI Foundation are partnering to change that.
As a company comprised largely of engineers, Texas Instruments is highly invested in increasing students’ STEM competencies, especially as we look to hire within our local talent pool. We provided funding to Girl Scouts to get more girls actively engaged in STEM, and they created the STEM Center of Excellence in Dallas to provide girls with a safe environment to try new things (like robotics), take risks and learn from failure, all while building confidence and self-assurance.
Our team members are a huge part of the success of these initiatives, as they donate their time to be role models to girls who might not know what they can do in STEM fields, or might not have the confidence to try something new, particularly in a male-dominated field like robotics.
One shining exemplar of ours is Ayesha Mayhugh, a Texas Instruments engineer and volunteer involved in this year’s Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas Cookie Box Creations contest.
The Cookie Box Creations contest teams up middle and high school girls with architects and engineers, in a design contest to transform Girl Scout cookie boxes into free-standing structures.
Using STEM elements, this annual activity challenges girls to develop critical thinking skills and promotes cooperation and team building, while building the structures around one central theme (this year’s theme was “countries around the world”).
Engineers are problem-solvers, and the methods we apply are the same – whether we’re working on a technical problem or trying to build a structure of cookie boxes. And we love to compete. My advice to other women: Be bold!” – Ayesha
Education is critical to our future, our industry, and to the communities where we operate around the globe. Today’s world requires STEM aptitude, and like ACT and Girl Scouts, we’re hard at work to ensure all students are prepared.
Barring cookies, nothing could be sweeter than equal representation, interest, and attainment in STEM.
And everyone can do their part to ensure girls see themselves as the scientists, engineers, innovators, and leaders we know they can be. If you aren’t already a volunteer or role model in some capacity, I challenge you to become one for a girl in your life.
Happy Girl Scouts Day!
Interested in this blog? Read more.
- International Women’s Day
- Women in STEM: You Belong
- Math Readiness Drops to 14-Year Low among the US High School Graduates, According to ACT 2018 Report
- The Condition of STEM 2017
About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is a global semiconductor design and manufacturing company that develops analog ICs and embedded processors. By employing the world's brightest minds, TI creates innovations that shape the future of technology. TI is helping approximately 100,000 customers transform the future, today. Learn more at www.ti.com. For more information about TI's support of education please see www.ti.com/education. Read about TI’s approach to giving at www.ti.com/giving or in the Corporate Citizenship Report at www.ti.com/ccr.
We're Girl Scouts of the USA
We're 2.5 million strong—more than 1.7 million girls and 750,000 adults who believe in the power of every G.I.R.L. (Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader)™ to change the world. Our extraordinary journey began more than 100 years ago with the original G.I.R.L., Juliette Gordon “Daisy” Low. On March 12, 1912, in Savannah, Georgia, she organized the very first Girl Scout troop, and every year since, we’ve honored her vision and legacy, building girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. We’re the preeminent leadership development organization for girls. And with programs from coast to coast and across the globe, Girl Scouts offers every girl a chance to practice a lifetime of leadership, adventure, and success. Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas serves more than 25,000 girls and 12,000 adult volunteers across 32 counties. In 2018, Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas opened the STEM Center of Excellence, a 92-acre state-of-the-art camp just outside of Dallas where girls can experience programs in astronomy, robotics, coding, computer science and more. To volunteer, reconnect, donate, or join, visit www.girlscouts.org.
