Chicas en Tecnología organized a day of participatory activities for young women to discover a professional path, academic training and personal development through technology.
Saturday noon was rainy and cold, in the Buenos Aires capital the lights defended themselves from the gray day. First in trickles and then in large groups, the arrival of girls and young women interrupted the foggy street. On the first floor of the Metropolitan University for Education and Work (UMET) the team of Girls in Technology had everything ready to welcome them: a day planned on the basis of proposals, opportunities and content designed exclusively for them; a network of actors made up of companies, organizations and educational institutions committed to creating an inclusive future based on diversity and teamwork; and spaces for creation and dialogue so that, at the end of the event, participants would leave with tools to explore the world of possibilities available to them.
“A day in your future.” was the name chosen for the second edition of Leading Girls in Technology and that is what it was all about: a tour of the world of technology, and the job and training opportunities that involve it, of which young women can be a part in the near future as women leaders. The itinerary began with a Activities fair The girls were able to take part in the activities proposed by the companies that accompanied the event so that they could participate in the ones they were most interested in. Without realizing it, they were already starting to trace their own path. At the stand of Despegar invited them to answer questions about the company and its characteristics. J.P. Morgan shared with them information on how many women are currently in senior positions within the organization, what the structure of an IT company is like and what methodologies they work with. Prisma played with virtual reality; at the stand of Mulesoft They built towers of light bulbs to playfully understand how to work as a team and what types of leadership exist; San Cristobal Group invited them to identify what they are passionate about; the team from Lagash presented them with agile methodologies and challenged them to develop in record time a proposal based on this way of working. Free Market learned how to prepare for a job interview and what questions are usually asked and how to prepare for an interview. Red Hat provided them with information on collaborative work and open source solutions. “I went through several activities and they taught us methods to develop ideas, raise them and use them, I found it very interesting. I didn't know that technology is in so many places, like in banks, companies.”, shared Rosa, 15 years old. “I think technology is a tool for what I'm going to study, which is Food Engineering, it's a necessary foundation for that.”, said Sabrina. Outside, winter was still the protagonist. Inside, the girls had already added rhythm and color to the afternoon.
An invitation to be protagonists
Julieta Sayar, Program Coordinator, and Ana Clara García Arbeleche, Culture Coordinator, welcomed the participants on behalf of Chicas en Tecnología. “The organization aims for more women to discover the world of technology to go from being users to creators of technology. The girls who have already gone through our programs have made that leap and since 2015 have created more than 200 applications with social impact. You are the ones who begin to recognize the problems you face every day and you yourselves devise a way to solve them”.”, said Julieta. The 140 girls who filled the auditorium were between 13 and 23 years old and there was a proposal for all of them. “The future begins to become present and the next big step that you will surely go through is the choice of vocation, to understand what you want to do, what motivates you, and then comes the world of work. So the invitation of this meeting is that you simulate a day in your future and that, with openness and curiosity, you go through the different spaces that we prepared for you.”, Ana encouraged them.
The afternoon continued with the Experience Panel, The event was a meeting between women who currently occupy leadership roles in the technology sector and the young women who listened attentively to them. The ages and stages they go through differentiate them, but the will to have more and more women in the technological entrepreneurial field is something they all have in common. Lucia Brizuela, Mercado Libre's Architecture Manager, encouraged participants to take their own tour: “There are many ways to work and study. I think the important thing is that each one finds the format that suits her. Know that there are many options, face-to-face studies, online, part-time or full-time jobs, internships, volunteer work. There are even projects that you can carry out with a group. Work and study were my training path, giving value to both things made me put the necessary effort”.”. A cross-cutting theme in all the activities was the importance of the soft skills that girls will need to develop to become women leaders in technology. María Tobón Paredes, J.P. Morgan's Vice President of Technology, emphasized that: “Communication skills are critical in this job. If you're not good at communicating it's very difficult to get where you really want to go. You must learn to work as a team.”.
In first person
From active listening to experimentation, the girls became the protagonists of the Workshops that encompassed technical skills and soft and in which they had enrolled according to their interests. Robotics, user experience, artificial intelligence and the search for the first job were some of the options they went through. The imprint of each one began to manifest itself at the moment that, prior to the event, they had to research the map of options and choose in which workshops to participate. Once in the UMET They occupied the university classrooms to take notes, consult doubts and concerns, work as a team with girls of their age that they had never met before, and live a little of the future that they have already begun to build.
The next activity was conducted by the next generation of women leaders, the #EmbajadorasCET, The participants were the key link between those who were hearing for the first time about technology as a possibility for their future and the women who are currently leaders in the technological entrepreneurial environment. They recounted the varied experiences they went through in a few years and talked with the participants as peers who share the same language and understand each other's doubts and insecurities because they are also their own. The three program graduates of Girls in Technology who led the panel work or study in the technology and science environment. “I really like to work. I like to study but the career is a process and I already want to finish it and dedicate 100% to work.”, said Julieta Taras, 19 years old. And when asked by the girls, she explained: “I am a programmer. You are assigned a project and you have to fulfill certain tasks. What I'm doing is web but there are other things, like mobile, basically it's development”.”. Just like Sofia and Xiomara, the two #EmbajadorasCET who accompanied her, Julieta participated of PUMM (Programming a Better World). After that first experience as a creator of technology she took a Web Development course at Digital House scholarship holder as a member of the Girls in Technology Community and an internship at Lagash University, where he currently works. The career she has chosen is Computer Engineering at the University of Buenos Aires. Xiomara Sawin, 21 years old, is studying the last stage of the Systems Programming Technician at UCES and works at Ewwo Consulting. However, her first career choice was Foreign Trade: “I didn't see myself working in that, and after the PUMM experience, which was in my senior year of high school and left a seed, I decided to change careers. I always liked to know how things work and create new things so a series of issues led me to make the decision.”. Meanwhile, Sofía Nuñez, 19, won a scholarship through Chicas en Tecnología to take a Full Stack Web Programming course at Digital House, she also took a User Experience course and is currently taking the entrance exams to study Information Systems Engineering at UTN: “I am doing something I am passionate about. Study with love and enjoy it because it's good, I know how to face a final, that nerves are useful to stay awake but they don't stop you.”.
Answers to participants' queries were at their fingertips. Communication between the CET graduates and the girls who approached the organization for the first time flowed without the need for intermediaries and the sense of community vibrated in the atmosphere.
Strategic alliances
Perform a systemic change for rbridging the gender gap in technology requires the participation of all stakeholders. This must be accompanied by long-term sustainable solutions to face the challenges of the future and professionals with leadership and communication skills who know how to work in diverse and inclusive teams. “A day in your future.” was the opportunity to realize alliances that contribute efforts to achieve this goal.
During the event, the joint work between the Metropolitan University for Education and Work y Girls in Technology. “Everything we do is free because there are people who believe in us. With Laura Sirotzky (Rector of the Instituto Superior Octubre) we share the belief that the most important thing is education, it is the only thing that no one will ever be able to take away from you. What you learn you take with you”.”, said Melina Masnatta, Executive Director of Chicas en Tecnología, before announcing that UMET will award full scholarships to the organization's graduates who want to study at UMET. Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science at that university or the Automation and Robotics Technician Degree at the Instituto Superior Octubre. “Last year no women were part of the 2018 cohort of Robotics and we got in dialogue with Melina to reverse those numbers. Our way of contributing to that fight has to do with granting scholarships to girls and women who want to pursue these careers at UMET or ISO. For us that is the first part of the challenge, the scholarship is to achieve access”.”, Laura Sirotzky contributed.
The participants of the event received news of more opportunities for the young women who are part of the Chicas en Tecnología Community, since during the event an agreement was also announced with the Argentine Guides Association. Candela González, Vice President of the organization, explained: “We work with the same objective, which is to provide you with tools so that you can make your own decisions and become women leaders. That's why we joined in a framework agreement to continue giving opportunities to all of you, so that the Guides can participate in the events of Girls in Technology and the CET Community can experience guiding.”.
