Forward from the Founder:
2019 has been an incredible year for hEr VOLUTION from obtaining our Charitable Status to welcoming our new formed Youth Committee, Advisory Council and new Board Members to the successes that our program’s students have achieved such as securing employment, getting accepted to prestigious Universities to winning awards.
This is one of my proudest years so far in terms of reaping the benefits of the hard work put in the organization’s programs so far. On a personal level, I have been named a role model by Barbie’s You Can Be Anything campaign and a Trailblazer by Women in IP of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada for the work done so far to create opportunities for the next generation to enter STEM fields. I am hoping that these recognitions will inspire young women to believe that they, too can be anything and achieve their career goals in the near future. On a professional level, our GO!stem program was recognized by the Mayor of the City of Toronto and, the week in which the program was held, was recognized as the GO!stem Week. I am very excited about this because not only will this program make a great impact in the future, it was also the spark behind the STEMing UP Program. So many of our past participants showed such high interest in continuing with their learning about the technology that we had to implement a solution to this challenge they were facing, not enough programs available to them that were preparing them for a future career in technology.
Our programs are growing each year, students are becoming more engaged in the communities and in programs beyond hEr VOLUTION which is refreshing to see. We also get to see the industry becoming more involved and are very excited to see companies such as Salesforce which we partnered with for five years and our own Canadian tech company, Shopify, which we partnered with for three years, work with us to ensure that the girls from our programs get to be introduced to technology in a way that is exciting, innovative and informative.
There is still a long way to go in order for us to see the impact made through our programs, however, I am extremely optimistic that impact is made every single day and that the movement towards change has begun.
When hEr VOLUTION launched its first programs back in 2013, there was a lot of hope and courage given to the cause, despite the numerous non-believers around us. At the moment, that hope and courage is growing bigger every day and with every success achieved by our students.
I am excited about what is to come hence why I decided that the theme for next year will be Impact2020 where, because of our programs and events, we will spark impact and always strive for the betterment of our society.
Join us for future events and programs, we welcome you to make an impact with us!
GO!stem Program Updates
This year, we were extremely happy to have had the opportunity to work with Salesforce in planning and executing the GO!stem Program for the 5th year in a row. The program grew from making it available to twenty students in its first year to now making it available to 35 students this summer. Girls came into the program knowing the minimum there is to know about technology and walked away inspired to pursue a future in technology. The team at Salesforce has worked very hard to bring together an environment of learning, inspiring and motivate young women beyond their expectations.
“As a hijab, I’m unfortunately used to the negative stares and occasional comments. All negativity left as soon as I entered the Salesforce office. I did not interact with one rude employee and I sincerely thank all staff members for being so welcoming. I truly felt like I was with family.”
“I really loved how friendly the staff were. It made you feel right at home”
“I learned how to build a website was incredible, and to see my finish work made me feel so proud.”
GO!stem Week Updates
As we celebrated 5 years of successfully running the GO!stem Program, we celebrated this year with having the week of the GO!stem Program declared as the official GO!stem week by the Mayor of the City of Toronto, John Tory.
This recognition is an exciting accomplishment and we are looking forward to making a greater impact with this imitative moving forward. Stay tuned for an upcoming initiative that will help support the impact we will be making throughout the GO!stem Week.
STEMing UP Program Updates
When we initially started our STEMing UP Program in 2018, we aimed for big changes and high impact. It was inevitable that we learned so much in the process and most definitely progress was made. We completed our curriculum development for JavaScript and Python coding; we learned that we can have the program run over 4 weeks instead of 4 months and have better outcomes because of it in terms of the number of participants completing the program. We continued to hire students from the program to help them gain leadership skills in addition to the program content; we started working with FDM Academy which provided trained professionals to help us deliver the coding aspect of the program; we managed to have 14 program mentors during the program in addition to 10 extra mentors to help the students achieve success in their academic and professional careers.
In order to make this progress happen, we continued to work in close partnership with Shopify who donated a total of $60,000 so far in addition to the in-kind support such as mentors, space, lunch and refreshments, and laptops for the students to name a few resources so far. We are estimating that the total support has been a total value of $150,000.
We also continued to work with Humber College who generously provided us with the classrooms for the program in addition to the workshop that introduced our students to information on how to get a post-secondary education and the necessary funding. Furthermore, the students were able to have a tour of the newly added Centres of Innovation which is an integral part of the success of our students as they get to learn about future 
opportunities in technology and innovation.
Trillium Foundation was a major funding source of this program allowing us to support the necessary costs of the program including evaluation and curriculum development.
We started working with Capital One this year as one of our corporate funders and we are extremely grateful for their $5,000 donation supporting the transportation cost for the students of the program as well as providing mentors to further support the students beyond the program’s schedule.
We are extremely grateful to have worked with other numerous other partners and professionals who jumped to the opportunity to support the students from our program with their expertise in various areas such as marketing, business development, networking, financials, pitching, AI and overall career development. Thank you to the folks at Dell Canada, FDM Academy, and Tribalscale for not only providing professionals for the STEMing UP Program but also for opening your doors to the students to learn in an environment that could one day become the workplace for many of these young women. We would like to also thank professionals form the following companies who supported our program be delivering exceptional content in business development, Digital Coconut, iMGreat Innovative Talent, OPN, Klick Health, MaRs, BizSkills, BSTYLED, and SHAD.
We are very happy that we had the opportunity to work with a new challenge partner that we hand-selected for this program based on the criteria that it was woman-led and operated business, Kym Nilz. This company has also become a corporate social partner donating a percentage of the proceeds of the sales of its products to help fund the STEMing UP Program.
To see more on this program we invite you to check out our digital yearbook for the STEMing UP 2019 Program at http://bit.ly/STEMingUP2019
Accomplishments of 2019:
2019 has been an incredible year and we achieved so much and here are some highlights:
Thanks to the hard work by Blakes Law Firm, hEr VOLUTION has officially become a charitable organization, and we look forward to making a greater impact because of it!
- Our Founder, Doina Oncel was named the Role Model for Canadians by Barbie’s “You can be anything campaign” to help celebrate today’s career woman and to inspire young women everywhere to pursue careers of their choice.
- Doina was also named a Trailblazer by Women in IP of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada for the work done so far to create opportunities for the next generation to enter STEM fields
- Collaborated with Toronto Community Housing Corporation to facilitate engaging workshops and mentorship sessions to over 150 middle school girls
- Partnered with SLYE Network to deliver outreach sessions to high schools across GTA
- Participated in the Metamorphosis Gils STEM and the Girls in Tech Conferences having a presence on panels, facilitated workshops and outreach sessions for girls grades 6 – 8.
- Our students were generously sponsored by TO/gether to participate in FITC conference, which brought together thousands of passionate innovators, developers, designers, creatives, marketers, and students for three packed days of talks, events, and workshops.
- Participated in the Digital Literacy Week event by introducing young women to opportunities in computer science
Our Student’s Success:
STEMing UP students have achieved exceptional success and here are some highlights:
- Secured summer employment at BMO and RBC
- Accepted at Ryerson University’s Business and Technology Program
- Accepted at Carleton University’s Computer Science Program
- Accepted at Shopify’s Dev Degree Program
- Won the CAN-WITH for Aspiration in Computing Award
Thank YOU!
We’d like to give a heartfelt thank you to our donors who, because of their contributions, we are able to inspire girls to embrace STEM careers in order for them to continue to strive in their future careers in STEM.
Thank you to:
- $6,460 Individual donations from people just like you!
- Thank you to Lynette Turner for the Strategic Planning Session enabling us to plan a better future for our community.
A special thank you to all of our volunteers, Board Members, Advisory Council, and Youth Committee Members. YOU are the heart of what we do and we are forever grateful for you!
What is next?
Because our goal has been and will always remain to impact more girls with the opportunity to become the future of work for women in STEM, we decided to follow a yearly theme called Impact2020. In order to manifest this, we will be planning and executing multiple events throughout the year including hosting a career fair. Furthermore, we will be introducing some of the students from our programs to the opportunity of presenting their projects and invite them to discuss their learning experience. We welcome you to join us!