STEM Girls

4/26/2017

CIS, Украина, Ukraine

We are happy to join the initiative "International Day of Girls in ICT":

Ukrainian Federation of Informatics (UFI). UFI is a public organization established over 20 years ago. Now UFI unites Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics (GIC) of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU) and more than 30 leading Ukrainian Universities which work in informatics area, including National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Vinnytsia National Technical University, Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics, Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts (KNUKiM) and others. Expert Organization Center “Development of Corporate Social Responsibility” (working in Ukraine with more than 100 companies, 200 universities, 20 schools, 60 public companies and 40 municipalities), Coalition of STEM-Education in Ukraine (association of companies, educational institutions, associations and expert organizations, municipalities and media aimed to improve the quality of STEM-education in Ukraine), Association "IT Ukraine" (members of the Association are more than 55 leading IT companies in Ukraine, including Miratech, EPAM Systems, GlobalLogic, Luxoft, SoftServe, etc.), Public Union "League of Information Technology", CIO Community in Ukraine, "Main Academy” company, "Smart Future” charity fund; and we are confident that with each passing day, this list will grow.

We want to tell about projects intended to overcome gender stereotypes when choosing a profession as well as announce the nearest events in the framework of the International Day of "Girls in ICT" in 2017.

Projects

CSR Development Center launched the STEM Girls project and the TOP 20 Inspiring Women in STEM initiative.

TOP 20 Inspiring Women in STEM – it is a unique community of women in Ukraine who have made successful careers in science and technical fields, e,g, top managers of IT and technical companies, academics, representatives of ministries, universities and NGOs. (For more information please refer for the link: TOP 20 Inspiring Women in STEM). The TOP-20 includes 10 women-representatives of the ICT sector. Within 6 months women from the TOP 20 Inspiring Women in STEM met with the girls in the largest cities of Ukraine - Odessa, Lviv, Kiev and Kharkov in order to share their stories and answer the girls’ questions. 500 girls participated in the event.

STEM Girls is a project intended to overcome gender stereotypes when choosing a profession and to increase the faith of girls in their own abilities and opportunity to build STEM career in Ukraine.

A contest for 13 - 19 years old girls "Why Do I Choose STEM Careers?" was held within the "STEM Girls" project (Project partner - the SAP company – is one of the world's leaders in the enterprise applications market).

On March 3 a conference "Women in STEM: From Dream to Action" took place in Kiev. The conference was held for successful women and young girls who are just dreaming about a career in STEM

The important issues women in STEM are concerned about were discussed during the event as well as questions regarding role of mentoring of Ukrainian girls in their career and the necessity of their involvement in STEM industry. As a solemn final of the conference, there was the rewarding of participants of nationwide contest "Why Do I Choose STEM careers?" and launching of the first mentoring program in Ukraine " STEM Girls: Grow Together." The winners of the competition, 21 special girls, received mentoring for three months from the TOP-20 Inspiring Women.

Events: 

For anyone interested in STEM-education and STEM-professions

April 27 –STEM EDUCATION COALITION OF UKRAINE organizes  the «STEM in Ukraine: Partnership. Features. Prospects» Forum,  which takes place in the framework of the European STEM-week

Only for girls

April 27 – Open Day at the «Main Academy» company and meeting with women, working in IT sphere

April 28 – Open Day at the Luxoft Ukraine company and meeting with director Oleksandra Alhymovych

April 28 – Open Day on the Computer Science Department (Faculty of Economics, Law and Information Technology), Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts.