24 Sep 2020
#STEM4Every1, #STEMingUP, #STEMingUPSpotlight, Blog, Girls in STEM, STEM Spark, STEMingUPSpotlight, Success, Technology

STEMing UP 2020 Project Demos (JavaScript Cohort)

How did you enjoy the project demos from the Python cohort that we sent last week? We included another treat for you in this email below. Please check out the project demos from this year’s STEMing UP JavaScript cohort. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay informed of all of our updates (we don’t always share them on here)

 

STEMing UP 2020 Project Demo – ChatEasy

STEMing UP 2020 – JavaScript Group 2 presenting their solution to this year’s COVID-19 challenge “Care for our Seniors”

 

STEMing UP 2020 Project Demo – Fit2getThere

STEMing UP 2020 – JavaScript Group 1 presenting their solution to this year’s COVID-19 challenge “Youth Mental Health In Pandemic/Crisis”

 

STEMing UP 2020 Project Demo – Unwind Your Mind

STEMing UP 2020 – JavaScript Group 3 presenting their solution to this year’s COVID-19 challenge “Care for our Seniors”

18 Sep 2020
#STEMingUP, Blog, Dev Degree, Girls in STEM, STEMingUPSpotlight, Technology

Everything students need to apply to Shopify’s Dev Degree Program

About Dev Degree

  • Dev Degree is an evolution of the traditional co-op program, allowing students to master development skills faster.
  • Students receive $160,000+ in paid tuition and salary so that they can focus on learning and not finances.
  • 4,500 hours of Shopify real-world experience combined with 4,000 hours of university experience
  • Students receive four years of continuous hands-on experience at Shopify in parallel to attending classes and graduate with an accredited Computer Science degree.
  • Students benefit from a culture of support and mentorship throughout the program

Next Steps

  • For students (and any interested educators, guidance counselors, and support networks) please go directly to the hEr VOLUTION landing page. 
  • Apply Now Button: A special hEr VOLUTION application referral link Please use this link. When used by you, you will be tagged as a hEr VOLUTION referral.
  • Please check out Dev Degree’s upcoming workshops for community partners to help with the Dev Degree selection process, where the following will be covered:

Dev Degree Info Session on September 30, 2020

  • In this session, the Dev Degree team will talk about the student experience, how to apply for Dev Degree, and answer questions in a Q&A session.

Developer Life Sessions on October 7, 2020

  • Interested in a career in computer science? Learn from Shopify developers and Dev Degree students what life is like as a software developer.

Application Writing on October 14, 2020

  • Learn what makes a successful application to Dev Degree and how to write about what makes you awesome.
17 Sep 2020
#STEMingUP, #STEMingUPSpotlight, Girls in STEM, STEM Spark, STEMingUPSpotlight, Success, Technology

STEMing UP 2020 Project Demos (Python Cohort)

Before we start sharing the demos from this year’s program, we’d like to say a huge “Thank You” to our students who have been committed to this year’s STEMing UP Program. It has been challenging, indeed, however, these young women have given their all to participate in the program despite the challenges that they faced, i.e. lack of human contact and having to navigate online learning shortly after having to deal with a pandemic.

We’d also like to thank our partners who have committed to supporting us with this program during these unprecedented times.

  • Thank you to Shopify and Slack for your financial contribution as well as sharing resources such as coaches for the program.
  • Thank you to Citrix Canada, MongoDB, and Alexio Corporation for the continuous support, financial, and speaker contribution.
  • Thank you to Konrad Group for the financial contribution and to Humber College for continuing to support in terms of higher education.
  • We couldn’t forget Shopify’s Dev Degree Program, which has been a catalyst in supporting our students to benefit from a co-op program in computer science like no other

STEMing UP 2020 Project Demo-Re:Care Team

STEMing UP 2020 – Python Group 3 presenting their solution to this year’s

COVID-19 challenge “Frontline Workers Support”

STEMing UP 2020 Project Demo – Senior Society

STEMing UP 2020 – Python Group 2 presenting their solution to this year’s
COVID-19 challenge “Care for our Seniors”

STEMing UP 2020 Project Demo – CareOnClick

STEMing UP 2020 – Python Group 1 presenting their solution to this year’s

COVID-19 challenge “Frontline Workers Support”

10 Aug 2020
#STEM4Every1, #STEMingUP, #STEMingUPPartnerFeature, #STEMingUPSpotlight, Media, STEM Spark, STEMingUPSpotlight, Success, Technology

How #STEMingUP Students & Mentors Worked Together to Complete Their Program Challenge

STEMing UP Program is known for training young women for a post secondary education and a career in technology. However, one other focus, and an equally important one, is to create opportunities for the young women participants to start a portfolio of work. For some of these young women this is their very first opportunity to do so. 

The portfolio of work can be anything that the girls have worked on in the program based on the challenges brought on by a real business that we work with in order to create these real life work experience opportunities for our program participants. It can be anything from an app to a website. 

The key ingredients in making this experience a success are the mentors who are giving their time and expertise to train the young women every step of the way. The mentors have met with these young women at least once per week to help them develop a website for a woman led business that we identified as a business challenge in the 2019 STEMing UP Program. 

Since we are getting closer to the end of the STEMing UP Program this year, we want to take this opportunity to highlight the experiences that the participants from 2019 program have had during this project creation as well as their biggest support, their mentors. 

More

07 Aug 2020
#GOstemWeek, #STEM4Every1, Ambassadors, Girls in STEM, STEM Spark, Success, Technology

City of Toronto continues to take a major step forward to support the next generation of girls through the proclamation of hEr VOLUTION’s GO!stem Week

TORONTO, August 7, 2020 – For the second year in a row, hEr VOLUTION received Strategic Protocol Message from City of Toronto Mayor, John Tory to officially welcome Toronto to GO!stem Week.

 

“We are very excited for the continuous recognition and support from the Mayor of Toronto, John Tory for the GO!stem Week which we will host this year for two consecutive weeks to help accommodate the virtual programming from which we had to pivot due to COVID-19. We have learned during this pandemic that technological skills are now more crucial than ever, and we are very grateful that the Mayor has joined us by officially sending a letter of proclamation of this event.” says hEr VOLUTION Founder, Doina Oncel.

Research shows that underrepresentation of Black and racialized women in STEM is still an issue in Canada and it is through programs like GO!stem where the industry joins to support us to ensure that the future of work is ready for the new world.

We’ve been working with Salesforce Women’s Network for 6 years in a row to bring together the GO!stem Program to girls interested in learning about technology in a fun and exciting way. Through this partnership we were able to deliver this program to over 150 girls from GTA. This year we will be hosting the GO!stem Program with Salesforce from August 10 to August 14, 2020 and girls in the program will be introduced to HTML, CSS, Java and Python learning.

This year, we are excited to be joined by GM Canada to help us expand the access to technology and innovative learning to a wider group of young women from across Ontario and we expect to have 30 young women, from August 17 to August 21, 2020 learn from GM professionals about technology and innovation through the GO!stem with GM Canada virtual program.

Additionally, given that this is the inaugural year for our Ambassador Program, where we welcome young women to share their voices and gain leadership skills, with 50% of them being former hEr VOLUTION students, we are very happy that the GO!stem Program has been a great learning experience for them as well and their involvement goes as far as planning and executing some of the lessons in this program as well.

 

About hEr VOLUTION

hEr VOLUTION is an award-winning charitable organization providing innovative education and employment services to girls and young women in STEM. Our mission is to advance education by providing workshops and instructional seminars on topics relating to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for low income and marginalized youth with a focus on girls and young women.

For more information, visit www.hervolution.org

For interview requests for or quotes from hEr VOLUTION contact:

mediarelations@hervolution.org

www.hervolution.org

###

15 Apr 2020
#GivingTuesdayCA, #STEM4Every1, #STEMingUP, Blog, Girls in STEM, GOstem, Media, Technology

What COVID-19 is teaching us about online learning

Coronavirus has saturated the media landscape over the past several months, impacting communities and individuals on both large and small scales. It is evident the impact that this virus is having on the most vulnerable populations in Canada, however, given the immediate healthcare challenges, not much of the discussion has turned to long term impact on vulnerable populations beyond the coming months.

We have found, through working with high school-aged women in the GTA, that 1 in 4 do not have access to a computer at home – a fact that is particularly damaging to universal and equitable access to education given that all classes have moved to online forums and classrooms for the foreseeable future. Statistics Canada reports that 19% of Canadians do not have access to hardware, which includes computers and that 28% of Canadians find internet access to be costly.

Although we live in Canada, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, it is a surprising fact to learn that a high volume of our population does not have a computer or internet at home, or both. And these statistics were all before the pandemic and the dramatically worsening economic situations in homes across the country. Knowing that millions of people are unable to work or have lost their jobs means that it will become increasingly challenging for greater numbers of our populations to continue to access the internet and computers. More