DigiGirlz are everywhere.... Nomusa Keninda- Mpumalanga ICT CLUB Founder has joined forces with Science Centres in South Africa to teach and motivate young girls into STREAM Careers. She presented her paper “DigiGirlz are everywhere” at the 20th SAASTEC Conference held on the 26-29 November 2018 at Thohoyando in Venda by Vuwani Science Centre.
STREAM is an extension of STEM for Science, Technology, Robotics, Engineering, Art and Mathematics. Although she strongly believes in adding another big A for Agriculture, she is actively participating and advocating for it in the near future. “Yes, DigiGirlz are everywhere.., my target is with the grade 9 girls in all schools because of many reports which suggested that there are few women in the Tech industry” Keninda said. Grooming girls into IT careers is a great idea. They will be making subjects choices the following year in grade 10 therefore, they need role models in the tech space. The South African Association of Science and Technology Centres (SAASTEC) gave her an opportunity to relate her story about the DigiGirlz events she hosted in schools in 2017/2018 year in the conference plenary. “She is an excellent presenter and motivated all of us in the SAASTEC community to look for DigiGirlz and host such events with an aim of recruiting girls into STEM Careers” said Ginny Stone, SAASTEC Secretary. DigiGirlz event is a Microsoft Initiative under its Youth Spark Programme which motivates young girls into IT careers.
During the event three sessions are put together by Mpumalanga ICT CLUB: Ice breaking with girls presenting their talents in Art, Poetry, Music and Dance, secondly, Motivation Session and lastly Coding Skills where girls are introduced into Basic Computer Science Education. “We are excited as a club to have taken this initiative into a reality for young girls and we will be hosting the DigiGirlz event in all schools with grade 9 in Mpumalanga and other provinces” Keninda related with passion.
DigiGirlz are everywhere… presentation can be accessed on twitter and facebook posts @musakeninda, @ictclub_mp, Nomusa Keninda and Mpumalanga ICT CLUB Compiled by Nomusa Keninda, Mpumalanga ICT CLUB Founder,
