City of Orlando Declares October 11th Tech Sassy Girlz Day
8th Annual Tech Sassy Girlz Day Conference Ignites Middle and High School Girls to Empower the World by Ending Tech Gender Gap
In its 8th year, the Tech Sassy Girlz Day Conference presented by Oracle Academy and powered by Ford, attracted 500 girls from across the Central Florida area, anxious to learn more about exciting careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields through college preparation, career readiness, mentoring and entrepreneurship by developing their computational thinking skills needed to become content creators in the digital economy.
The annual event was held at the nation’s largest and most innovative university in the country, the University of Central Florida (UCF), a longtime partner of Tech Sassy Girlz. The conference has gained so much notoriety over the years, that this year, there was a waiting list of more than 100 girls hoping to get a chance to attend.
With a proclamation from the City of Orlando and Mayor Buddy Dyer declaring that October 11th was Tech Sassy Girlz Day, the event began by igniting the minds of middle and high school-aged girls. The day included hands-on fun STEM demonstrations, an introduction to coding workshop by Oracle Academy, tour of the UCF campus and a Cool Careers in STEM panel featuring notable Central Florida women in STEM. Students also had the opportunity to network with women technology business leaders to learn more about STEM careers and visit various STEM exhibitors who provided hands-on STEM activities for the students.
During the event, Amazon surprised Tech Sassy Girlz (TSG) butterflies with robots and Fire HD8 Kids Edition tablets! It was an amazing donation that left the girls speechless!
“This year’s conference was history in the making as we introduced 500 middle and high school girls to high quality STEM workshops and activities. When we talk about diversifying the STEM pipeline and providing skills-based training for girls, it starts with Tech Sassy Girlz.” says Laine Powell, Ed.D., Tech Sassy Girlz Founder and Executive Director.
TSG provides access for girls to develop 21st century computing skills that will help them embrace their passion and recognize their potential in STEM fields. Since its inception in 2012, TSG has touched the lives of more than 800 middle and high school “girlz” and awarded more than $25,000 in scholarships. TSG has successfully placed its Pearls in Tech students in 6 week paid internships in the City of Orlando’s IT Department and AceApplications, LLC.
The conference was created to increase awareness of STEM career opportunities and services for middle and high school girls by increasing participation, retention and advancement of girls and women in STEM. Additional sponsors include Alpha Kappa Psi, Nielsen Foundation, Best Buy, Wells Fargo, Fattmerchant and AceApplications, LLC.
- For more information view our videos from the event:
Introduction by our Executive Director Dr. Laine Powell - City of Orlando Proclamation