K. Papulkas, Photo Credit: Twitter

Katina Papulkas, an educational strategist with Dell was a key component in getting the pilot off the ground, which gives girls a personalized, safe and supportive community. Access to practice with coaches, mentors and role models is also available. The adults engage the players and build their self-efficacy and confidence.

“By the end of the club term, the players have a greater self-awareness of their improved knowledge, skills and dispositions, and are empowered to become leaders in [STEM] related fields and the growing esports movement across the education landscape.”

Katina Papulkas also added:

“Girls Who Game is an after-school program for young girls and underserved K-12 students across the US and Canada. The program provides them with the opportunity to learn more about STEM through gaming. We use Minecraft Education Edition as a fun learning tool to help students develop real-world skills like communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. By engaging successful women in STEM as coaches and mentors, we hope to create a safe and supportive girl-centric ecosystem that enables girls to become autonomous and confident. Less than half of high school girls know a woman in a STEM career, and we know how important representation is. These relationships give girls amazing role models and show them what is possible. By the end of the club term, our goal is to help students build a network of long-lasting relationships and develop greater self-awareness while empowering them to continue growing in STEM.”

Girls Who Game has been in 130 school districts across the United States and Canada. COVID-19 presented a major challenge for them but they are agile and have been able to meet the needs of the club virtually. Papulkas also noted:

“We focus on underserved students and ask district leaders and teacher champions to connect with girls that might not usually have the option to participate in a STEM activity or camp and those that would benefit from this type of program.”

Katina also cited that last spring, GWG shifted to a successful fully virtual model, which evolved into the fall/winter. There was a combination of on-site, fully virtual and hybrid models, depending on each district’s guidelines in compliance with the CDC. To accomplish this mission, the GWG program focuses on three main approaches:

1. Provide authentic applications and engage female students in learner-driven experiences that broaden their knowledge, skills, and dispositions within STEM-related fields.
2. Develop mentorship by fostering the pursuit of academic and career aspirations for young women.
3. Build a community of learners by using gaming to build relationships, amplify success, and promote reflection for continued growth and ongoing feedback.

GWG’s website revealed that, even though women constitute 50% of the overall workforce, there are only 28% of them in the science and engineering workforce. Female minorities are gaining traction, as 11% of STEM  jobs are held by female minorities. This is notable because the report found that less than 50% of high school girls know a woman in a STEM career.

You might have seen his TED Talk or watched one of his informational DevOps videos, but do you know that Tanmay Bakshi also used IBM’s resources  to learn more about tech.

This is my life captured on screen – from watching @SpongeBob SquarePants, to keynoting at a #technology conference! The funnest part of being an #AI evangelist is to discover and share “Unlikely Business Lessons".
Thanks @Mailchimp @pulsefilms https://t.co/qr8w5OVTv8

— Tanmay Bakshi (@TajyMany) July 7, 2019

Tanmay Bakshi is a 15 year-old canadian software developer, author, AI/ML architect , TED and keynote speaker, and a media personality who has addressed over 200,000 executives, leaders, intellectuals, and developers at international conferences. Before 2 years Tanmay was only 13 years old when he became Google’s youngest employee.

What is more, Tanmay is an IBM’s Student on Call developer advocate as well!    During his high school years, Tanmay spends 20 hours a week working at IBM. He is a co-instructor in one of the courses within the IBM AI Professional Certificate program. This boy started his journey as a developer by coding at the age of 5. He has created a few apps and published one book called Hello Swift!: iOS app programming for kids and other beginners. His love of computer science has led him to become an AI expert.

You can also check Tanmay’s Youtube channel full of tutorials and tech life skills https://www.youtube.com/c/tanmaybakshiteaches