Give girls a greenlight in STEM around the world!

Aerodynamics tells us how objects move through the air, and in the case of our g4g events these past few months, the way objects flew through the air linked to clean energy, design, and sustainable future inventions! Our team traveled from India to Netherlands to Australia to the US engaging over875 attendees在科学和技术学习ign动手ite their wildest dreams and help them soar. After all, when you believe that Anything is Possible, what else can you do? From global hackathons that helped communities access water in a more sustainable way to astronomy lessons in Canberra, to technology learning with our Fellowship scholars, we’ve had an incredible few months to share with you. As always, we deeply appreciate your generosity that makes our programs like these possible.

On May 10, we had the pleasure of going to Harbour International School in Rotterdam to lead fantastic WORKSHOPS for200 girls and boysin primary school. With 4 g4g team members, we ran workshops on lava lamps, magic milk, Scribblebots, polymer worms, non-Newtonian fluid, chromatography, bath bombs, and human DNA extraction. We had the pleasure of meeting all of the kids in an assembly discussing the importance of science and showing some of our favorite inspiring STEM demos.

On May 13, we launched aspecial episode of our broadcastwith Vodafone Luxembourg, WWT, and the Kenyatta Trust on the theme of Transformationwhere we invited schools in both Luxembourg and Kenya to join in for a moment of STEM EXPLORATION and inspiration.100+ studentsfrom two continents had a chance to ask questions, interact with speakers and did acreative experiment. We especially loved seeing their unique and creative ways of making a piece of paper hold a book – our interactive challenge activity. A shoutout to the Thika Girl’s’ Karibaribi Secondary School in Kenya and the International School of Luxembourg for their participation – as well as some amazing inspiration from our speakers Leah from World Wide Technology, Mabel from Vodafone Business, & LaTasha from SES Satellites.

And of course, we were thrilled to complete our GLOBAL HACKATHON with Solvay which ran from May 16-May 20!! This virtual hackathon was a first-of-its-kind for g4g with the hackathon challenge of making a community more accessible to water. With over40 young women taking part from Brazil, Spain, Belgium, US, Canada, South Korea, and India, and 15 invention submissions, we can’t wait to share them all. We had the chance to recognize 9 of the most outstanding inventions on a final broadcast on the theme ofCommunityon June 22 where we had welcoming words from g4g, Solvay, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and Ewha University in South Korea. You can check out all the submissions on our summary videohere– and we congratulate ourRising Star Winner was Veda Ramakrishnanwho amazed us by her innovation and design thinking. We are proud to showcase her invention called OCEANAGEN which was inspired by the hemodialysis machine used by people with weak kidneys. Inspiration can come from anywhere, we never know! Her invention uses osmosis to remove salt from the water and turn it into potable water, and gives coastal communities an alternative source of clean, safe drinking water.

In addition, our team launched the SOLVAY INNOVATOR’S HUB as part of our g4g Lab – an online platform that asks: what if learning and school were different? We are so happy to have90+ kids going through 5 incredibly fun and hands-on modules and to have over 857 kids in our g4g Lab overall!They will have a chance to learn about Smart Cities, Innovation, Alternative Energy, Water, Food, and more – all inspired by Solvay materials and expertise.

From there, we went to Circleville Elementary School in the New York area on June 2 where we hosted an incredible ART AND SCIENCE NIGHT. We had an amazing opportunity to provide the prizes for the scavenger hunt participants and make their night even more special! What a great way to share STEM love with our community!

On July 13th, we travelled to Jaipur, India, to visit a Computer Literacy Centre where12 young womenare learning to use computers as part of the g4g FELLOWSHIPS PROGRAM. At ourMeet the Scientist session,their faces lit up as they heard words of encouragement from Melissa Rancourt, Founder of g4g, Ilham Kadri, CEO of Solvay, and Solvay scientists. They then practiced booting up a computer, firing up the browser, turning on their personal hotspot and navigating the internet. With support from Solvay scientists, the girls listened to career stories, learned more about lightweight and innovative Solvay materials especially in the field of agriculture, and were encouraged to dream big. At the end of the day, our project manager led the girls through an experiment to make their very own paper plane, where they wrote their dreams and fears on them and sent them flying! With learning around aerodynamics, design thinking, and prototyping new inventions, the girls were thrilled to explore concepts that were new to them.

From there, we jumped to a school in Vadodara, India to lead students through ourGlobal Hackathonprogram in-person on August 4th! Students from across the school joined the opening conversation as 5 amazing SOLVAY SCIENTISTS explained a day in their life and showed some of the science that they work on every day. The Solvay scientists spoke to the girls in Hindi and Gujarati about science and their careers, igniting moments of inspiration and motivation that encouraged the girls to be curious, inquisitive, and to know that Anything is Possible! Then, it was time for designing. The girls sketched and shared their knowledge about where water comes from in their community, which helped them later design solutions to challenges in water purification, transportation, and storage. It was a touching moment to see over160 girlscreate such imaginative designs in just one day and to see how they felt more confident in themselves and their ideas as a result.

And from India, we traveled across the US and Canada to help CDK Global, a leader in the automotive industry, with their INTERNSHIP program. Starting on June 21, g4g worked with CDK Global to engage99 internsto create a community impact activity that did not need to include an in-person presence. Our team led the interns through 3 inspiration sessions to help them ideate, design, and communicate their community engagement activity to an audience of their choosing that related to science, sustainability, and the mission of CDK. The interns worked in groups and individually to design and implement activities such as creating an ant farm that is exhibited at a local library, building an activity to help the elderly, educate kids in their community on STEM in virtual meetings or app, or working with their local middle schools to help a encourage picking up trash in their neighborhood. Check out the most outstanding activitieshere!

To round out our past few months, we hosted a 2-day G4G DAY CANBERRA event with the most creative girls! On August 21st, we inspired160 girls在堪培拉与女童军合作的行为& SE NSW - STEM to dive into the world of science. From understanding the nature of mathematics through a card game to building mechanical computers powered by marbles, the girls had an opportunity to get hands-on with STEM. The girls made polymer worms, helicopter designs, and much more while learning about buoyancy, hydrodynamics, chemistry, electricity, and magnetism. They truly showed us that #AnythingisPossible. What a fantastic experience! A massive thank you to all of our partners who helped us to organize this fun and engaging STEM event for girls in Canberra - Girl Guides ACT & SE NSW - STEM, Girl Guides NSW & ACT, National Science Week, Inspiring Australia - National Networks, The Australian National University, Defense Force Recruiting, Geoscience Australia, and Vikings Group.

We look forward to sharing more with you soon, and thank you for all that you do to support our mission in inspiring more girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

How do you want to be remembered? What willyourlegacy be?

当我们小组认为在我们离开我们的标志rld, we envision actively creating moments of inspiration, opportunity, and connection that can change lives. Over these past few months at greenlight for girls, we have been reminded to celebrate the achievements of incredible women in science and innovation – and their legacy that continues to whisper encouragingly for each one of us to askwhyandwhy not?!We celebrated the achievements of the extraordinary Dr. Barbara H. Wells who helped improve the health and livelihood of millions of people around the world by dedicating herself to agriculture and forestry research. She innovated the food industry and made a positive impact for people and the planet by helping to improve nutrition security, sustainability, resilience, and crop variety. Wow! We were thrilled to be a recipient of a GlobalGiving fundraiser in honour of her memory and we look to her life and work as inspiration in all that we do.

We also celebrated Dr. Katalin Karikó, a Hungarian-American biochemist and professor, for her pioneering research in mRNA technology which was recently recognized as the winner of the2022 Science for the Future Solvay Prize. How incredible that her technology is leading the future of medicine and vaccine research – what a true champion of reinventing progress! Our Founder, Melissa Rancourt, had the honour of attending the award ceremony with our partner, Solvay, this past March. Melissa also had the pleasure of joining The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) E-Fest as a keynote speaker on how engineering opens doors to hundreds of listeners.

And speaking of opening doors, our inspiration has taken us from India to Luxembourg to Belgium as we held events that benefited over950young innovators these past few months. We started March by hosting 10 science workshops at theBritish International Schoolwhere our team shared the fun in DNA extraction, lava lamps, chromatography, paper circuits, and seed bomb making. With over 200 students who could draw cheek cell diagrams better than we could, we were so impressed!

Our broadcast onInvest in partnership with Vodafone and HSBCon April 4thengaged 224 studentsas we challenged them to see how they will create exponential growth for themselves. We loved hearing fromJennifer, Head of Cloud Portfolio at Vodafone Business,Michele, a multilingual science communicator with a background in biomedical research, andLucy, with over 20 years’ experience in biotechnology and finance, especially their great advice to the next generation. Science is part of everything and every career so we loved that Michele mentioned:“As a scientist, you work with a piece of the puzzle that fits into many other pieces to give you a big picture.”The broadcast wouldn’t be complete without a… giant fiery carbon snake? It’s true! Our team shared a carbon expansion experiment which creates giant carbon snakes which you can see in fullhere.

Connection means more than just a relationship or an association, it can also be a link, idea, perspective, or mindset that can be cultivated and changed. In our broadcast onConnect with AIGon April 6 we were excited to bring forward this idea to 254 students virtually. WithJustineandPatriciafrom AIG,Nishatfrom Rise Research Institutes of Sweden AB,Valarmathyfrom Ashland Inc., andEvafrom COP26 - UN Climate Change Conference, we had a diversity of speakers who creatively approached our theme. We talked about not being afraid to try new things, meet new people, or say yes – and emphasized that each new experience will help deepen your connection to yourself and others and pave the way for great things to come. To inspire the students, the g4g team had fun engineering a BIG light chain experiment (even in the dark) – for the full video, check it outhere.

On April 27th, we were delighted to host a brand-new in-person event called‘Meet The Scientist’ in partnership with Covestro in India. This event gave more time for girls to connect and learn from the scientists themselves about their real-life innovations and STEM adventures. With show and tell objects, girls met our panel of scientists to see how and what they are innovating in sustainability and circularity. What an amazing day! With180 students aged 13-14years from Auxilium Convent High School in Lonavala, India, we had paper planes that soared high with sustainability pledges linked to the SDGs, hand-made bee bombs for their school, and so much more. A big thank you to our own project manager, Allan, and the Covestro team for such an incredible and lasting experience.

And from India to Brussels! On April 30th, we teamed up with Université libre de Bruxelles and CALIPER to help inspire90 girls 12-15to see their future possibilities differently at ourg4g Day ULB. We had15 incredible workshops from 80+ volunteer role modelswhere girls learned skills such as working with light with ULB Astrophysics, making their own perfume with P&G, using electrolysis with Vivaqua, 2D/3D printing with FabLab ULB, human DNA extraction and coding with g4g, measuring the size of the earth with ULB Physique, VR and arduino hologram coding with Elia, discovering chromatography, pH, and density with Baxter, chatting about professions in STEM with BeWise, fruit batteries with Engie, and so much more. We were thrilled to welcomeNathalie Stephenneas our keynote speaker, a geographer and expert in the geomatic. We loved the messages from the girls after the event saying:“Girls are just as strong as boys,”“With science, we can do anything,”and“Lemons… I had no idea they could make electricity!!”We agree, it’s quite empowering to realise that you can transform something so ordinary like lemons into something as powerful as electricity.

Dreams continue to change, evolve, and hopefully flourish – and the legacy of how you make a difference for the next generation lives on in every step we all take. We thank you, our wonderful donors, for your continued support and generosity that helps us make this difference at every event and with every girl that sees herself differently in science. As always, stay tuned for our upcoming events – abroadcast on Transformation with 100+ studentsin Luxembourg and Kenya with Vodafone, a virtualGlobal Hackathonwith Solvay, and so much more.

Thank you!

All the best,

g4g team

Trois, deux, unité… décollage!

This past December, the launch of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope rocketed the world into a new chapter of space discovery. What an incredible moment to experience. We love that sense of potential that blasting off into the unknown brings – and of course, we believe that new science learning like this is at the heart of why we do what we do. In the same way that the telescope will create new possibilities forastronomicallearning, we look forward to igniting inspiration in STEM for the next generation in new, innovative ways as well. And our team hopes to take STEM learning to the next level – a new solar system even – to remind girls especially that there is a future of possibilities in any career they imagine through pursuing STEM.

We are proud to have celebrated our own launches these past months – though with significantly less fire and our team traveling slightly less than 22,000 miles per hour!

Looking back, it was certainly “A Year of 2021 possibilities” – which is what we wrote on our office blackboard way back on the first days of January. We surpassed the 2021 possibilities – and reached more than 2,700 young STEM adventurers with more than 20 events involving incredible team members and mentors with our partner companies: AIG, Covestro, US Embassy Brussels, CDK Global, Solvay, Vodafone, European Parliament, and so, so many more. These projects have included career hackathons, broadcasts, in-person teaching at schools, a 6-month Passport to STEM Program, grant writing, and more. This means that since our inception in 2010, we have reached51,475 people and 8,493 volunteers at 398 events in 101 cities across 34 countries on 6 continents. WOW!We are so appreciative of all of our partners and our donors like YOU, whose generosity enables our work and impact to continue.

And we are especially proud of our g4g team who among all of this also launched a creative new world for us to play, theg4g Laband the first learning module inside it, theCovestro Circular World. It started with an idea from our Founder, Melissa Rancourt – how could school and learning be different? – that grew into a place where any STEM explorer can come to learn, have fun and make friends. The design of the Covestro Circular World in particular enables teachers, parents and the adventurers themselves to conduct the experiments in their homes, schools and communities, bringing back the results and their insights into the virtual lab. So far, we have close to150 people inside our lab including 5+ schools– and that number grows and grows each day.

And now – to look forward to more than 2022 possibilities ahead of us. Because, there is more. There is always more.

We will start the year by blasting off to ourg4g Day ULBat the end of January where we will invite 150 girls to join a day of STEM learning withUniversité Libre de Bruxellesin Brussels, Belgium. From there, we will travel to Canberra, Australia where we are hosting ourg4g Day Canberra with Girl Guides Australiawhere 50 girls will take part in workshops on DNA extraction, fingerprinting, calculating the speed of light with chocolate, and building marble-powered computers.

In partnership with theAvantor Foundation, we plan to launch fourg4g STEM Exploratoriumsaround the theme ofDesigning the Lab of the Futurein Belgium, France, Germany, and Czech Republic in 2022. Our projects will engage up to400 girls aged 16-18 from underserved schools在圣合作挑战激励他们EM. We will design hybrid events of virtual and in-person STEM learning with hands-on activities taught by role models in a hackathon-inspired environment.

We also will look forward to morebroadcastswith our partners such as AIG, Vodafone, and more. If you haven’t already caught a beautiful recap of our latest broadcast with Vodafone in Luxembourg on the theme ofIndependence, check it outhere. In science, independent variables are ones that stand alone and aren’t changed by the other. We love thinking about how that relates to people and growth – when you are independent, especially financially independent, you are able to shape your career and life as you want, without reliance on external people or factors. We were thrilled to have welcomed Nadya, Chief Operations Officer of Ventures and Partnerships at Vodacom Group, Alexandra, Chief Operating Officer of HSBC, and Anna, Founder & CEO of SCROBLE.

Stay tuned for our upcoming work withSolvayas we work to bring theirFuture Innovator’s Libraryto a new level through module learning in our g4g Lab, host an event on a sustainable STEM design challenge, and continue supporting young women as they pursue their education in India through our g4g Global Scholarship Programme.

We believe in a future where breakthrough science discoveries inspire communities to come together and dream new dreams, bigger and brighter than ever before. Thank you again for all your support as we continue our mission in inspiring girls to believe in their bigger and brighter futures too.

So, what will all the 2022 possibilities bring? We can’t wait to see and share with you!

Have a happy and healthy start to the new year,

All the best from your g4g team

Tell us, what’s your word?

Every year we set an intention as a team. And when September hits, we always feel energized with the back-to-school spirit in the air, and the sense of revival keeping us on our toes. For our team at greenlight for girls, our word has beenREFRESH我们专注于h翻我们的想法eads to see what new and exploratory STEM discovery we can offer to make a difference in the lives of the girls we reach. And we have been quite literally flipping things on their heads... just look at our experiment with Tensegrity structures where we use independent pieces to create a strong structure able to (seemingly) defy gravity!

And when we have our feet firmly on the ground these past few months, we’ve had the pleasure of hosting many different events across the world reaching even more girls in STEM. Over the summer,NOURISHwas one such descriptive word that took us all the way to Canberra, Australia where we had a broadcast episode with student researcher, Arabella, recent graduate, Alexandra, and Cyber Ready Officer and science communicator, Thanuri. It was incredible to have 50 girls live with us in celebration of National Science Week like 12-year-old Phoebe, who was particularly inspired by food nutrition. She loved asking the speakers questions like: what do you want to learn and do next? And if you could do anything else in the world, what would it be?

Another key word this summer wasIMPACTand it took us all around the United States! Throughout June, July, and August, we worked with CDK Global for the second year in a row where we launched an internship program, this time for nearly 140 interns across the country. Their challenge this year was to become educators, innovators, or mentors to share their expertise with the next generation to inspire them in the STEM that CDK Global uses every day. Their ideas and solutions were incredible! Some of them explored thescience of procrastinationand how project management tools like Jira can help while others looks atlinked listsandcoding practices. One of our favourites was how one group related software management and cooperation withhomemade rubber band cars!

Our word wasGROWTH在英国,我们欢迎Svaha CEO, Jaya,高级Lecturer, Annabel, AIG Risk Manager, Rachel, and AIG engineering professional, Valerie, as speakers on our broadcast over the summer. We loved how Valerie explained that her passion for working in insurance enabled her to work on varied subjects, like climate change, risk, oil and more! Or when Jaya explained how, when facing gender stereotype in the apparel industry, she decided to set-up her own company. Or when Annabel explained how she caught the A.I. bug because she wanted to show her daughter that there is no age to change career paths. Or when Rachel shared her words about not being deterred by challenges and issues, and encouraged us to go out of our comfort zone! We were thrilled to have such open and exciting conversation and to have inspired over 260 views of our broadcast after it aired.

Then, of course,POSSIBILITIESwas our word in India, when we heard from Covestro’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Sucheta, Oral Medicine and Maxillofacial Radiology doctor, Sunali, and STEM educator, Veena, on our broadcast episode. This was a special episode where we worked with schools in India to stream our broadcast live during their class time. Over 200 curious girls joined us live which was incredible to see! They had fun asking questions, playing with the annotation feature, and reminding everyone of the importance of encouraging girls in STEM.

We also had the chance to take part in a few in-person events that could only be described asFUN! We went to one of the local schools in Belgium to bring chemistry alive by making bath-bombs and polymer worms, as well as other experiments on physics and chromatography with over 120 young girls and boys. Then, we jumped over to an American Football game where we got to share the fun in STEM with girls and boys at a g4g stand.

And what else? Well, looking ahead, we feelJUBILANTto extend our g4g Scholarship programme even more. In rural Rajasthan, we have opened a new computer centre with the aim to help girls use computers and the power of the internet to enhance their learning and have access to online resources. We hope these initiatives will contribute towards their growth to be change agents and role models to others. We are also getting ready to launch secret worlds as part of ourg4g Labwith our partners… curious? Well, stay tuned to see what all the fuss is about!

It is with great pride that we continue the work we do thanks to your generous support. As you know, many of the girls that participate in our programs come from economically disadvantaged and challenging backgrounds with dreams to study and go further. With our impact on the community, we hope to inspire those girls to dream even bigger and feel that they can do absolutely anything.

We thank you for your support, and look forward to sharing more with you soon!

All the best,

g4g team

Shhhh… don’t tell anyone but our sustainable innovators are cooking up some incredible inventions of the future near you!! If you glance over at one of our schools from the United States, you may see a prototype being built of an “Automatic Service Teacher”robot inventionthat helps humans on the autism spectrum. This robot has the potential to alert teachers when a student is feeling anxious or help to make the student feel safer. If you look closer, you may see that it could use various tools like heart monitors/glasses, sensory environment applications, and... it even runs on solar power. But wait! If you jump over to Belgium, you may see a school who is combining waste recycling with equality and human rights. If you peek through the window, you could see that they are designing an entire ecosystem within their classroom with aQR code parcoursto help motivate users to be more sustainable and more inclusive. These are some of the thoughtful ways girls aged 11-15 are making their classroom a sustainable place of the future within our Passport to STEM Programme in partnership with the US Embassy in Belgium. Over these past few months, we’ve been thrilled to guide 100 girls from 12 schools across Belgium and the United States through the design process so they can realise their invention. They have had a chance to virtually meet with mentors from diverse backgrounds to get feedback and next month, a few of the schools will be recognized as leaders in STEM, sustainability, and inclusion! We can't help but mention one of our favourite feedbacks from the girls:"I am loving this program and have so much fun imagining and creating new inventions and forms to help people all around the world. I am so grateful to be involved in the program and think it's awesome."Yeah!

What else have we been up to these past few months?

看看我们的工作室办公室,在真正g4g style, you would polymer worms being created, crystals being formed, and solar cars whizzing by. Our team has been rocketing into space, diving deep into the ocean, racing around tracks, and finding out how to make everyday life more of an adventure! We launched a broadcast episode on just this theme –Adventure– with our partner AIG as we heard from beSPACE personality, Sarah; McLaren engineer, Sian; financial adviser, Holly; coastal ecosystem scientist, Claudia; and STEM adventurer, Julie. We love the advice that was passed on from Sian especially:“I fully believe that just because you make a choice and go in one direction, it doesn’t mean you can’t go back another direction and choose another door later on. STEM is incredibly diverse: I went from medical to race cars!”With over 400 views of our broadcast – and an adventurous experiment with crystals that shined and polymer worms that were indeed slimy – we believe that this message was well received!

And from adventure, we grew into our next broadcast theme,Renewal, which specifically benefited over 100 girls in Ireland and around the world thanks to our wonderful partners Riot Games and GlobalGiving. During this episode, speakers shared what it meant to renew their own personal and professional purpose, described how science is constantly renewing itself with innovation in research, and discussed how renewable energy can make the future a brighter place. We loved the diversity our speakers brought to the table including Fiona, who spent 20 years in the field of science research and earned her PhD in molecular genetics from Trinity College Dublin; Catriona, a young role model who changed from chemistry to political science and is currently in her last year at Trinity College Dublin; and Mary, an Ireland-based technology entrepreneur and serial angel investor who is one of Said Business School's (University of Oxford) Entrepreneurship Experts. We also showcased a hands-on experiment which featured the building of a solar-powered car and a solar-powered light. Oh la lumière!

We have also been busy behind-the-scenes working to bring ourg4g Labto life, a community platform of unique experiential learning that provides even more girls around the world with g4g activities, g4g fun, and g4g inspiration. We want the communities we serve to be able to actively experience STEM outside of the classroom, have fun thinking about STEM in new ways, and get a chance to meet STEM professionals as often as they want. Although we will be focused on module learning these next months ahead, we are also excited to be working again with CDK, a technology company, to welcome a cohort of 140 CDK interns as part of our STEM Challenge Internship programme. Don't forget to be on the lookout for broadcast episodes with Covestro role models and global hackathons with Solvay! There even may be a chance togathertogether in a new way soon… but shhhh, don’t tell anyone just yet!

To all of our donors, we are deeply appreciative of your support and generosity which keeps our programming for women and girls flourishing. We hope that you see the deep impact that you have had – over 2,300 people have engaged with our broadcasts since we have started… what a result! The content and engagement with STEM role models that we are able to share are the inspiration for the next generation, and it is your belief in our mission that fuels our creativity and innovation for all that we do. We thank you and can’t wait to share more with you soon!

Wishing you STEM invention and innovation ahead,

g4g team