This year, our team reached out to a member’s old school in Argentina and held a week-long python camp entirely in Spanish for 10 students aged 10-15 years old. We recorded the lectures and posted them on our Youtube channel so more people could learn basic Python in spanish. We also mentored rookie FTC team 18887 from Mexico, discussing and guiding them through the process of navigating FTC as a new team showing them our website resources. 

This year, we have continued our relationship with the Tzaneen, South Africa based nonprofit Greater Tzaneen Community Foundation and their budding robotics program. What we started with only 5-7 schools has grown to include over 1000. We connected Austin teams with some in Swaziland and Lesotho so each team could get mentoring they deserved. We also held 3D printing and CAD classes for some of our students. 

As soon as we learned about the summit, we knew we wanted to focus on sharing our experiences as girls in STEM. However, we wanted to add a unique perspective to our panel, which is why we reached out to a professional in the STEM field, Peggy Baker. As an engineer at Motorola, Ms. Baker was an incredible asset to our team, allowing us to discuss what it’s like being a girl in STEM in high school and beyond. 

We advocated for the benefits of STEM education and specifically HB 244 to House of Representatives members Rep. Brad Buckley, Rep. Ann Johnson, Rep. John III Bucy, and Rep. David Cook. Sponsored by Rep. Mary Gonzalez, this bill ensures increased access to quality Computer Science education in higher education schools through giving teachers access to professional development and certifications in the field.