By Katie O’Donnell
5/2/2013
This could be every teenager’s dream- getting out school to be on the computer all day.
The program is called “DigiGirlz” and it’s a day-long boot camp to get teenage girls interested in S.T.E.M. (science, technology, education and math) education. It’s hosted by Microsoft and promoted within Boston school systems.
Some of the girls attending, like Emily Smolinsky from the Foxboro Charter School, are interested in more creative scientific fields. She wants to be an engineering psychologist.
“It combines working with people, working with the artsy creative sides of things and working with science,” said Smolinsky. She enjoys it because it’s more focused on people and how they interact with things.
As Senior Director of the Microsoft New England Research and Design Center, Sara Spalding has been working on trying to close what she calls “the digital divide.” She said the divide is the difference in the amount of technology and technological education between gender and races. Her work with the DigiGirlz program is an effort to bring more women of every culture into science and show them how cool designing can be.
The video below gives a more in-depth look at the whos and the whys behind DigiGirlz Cambridge.
