In my last post, I posed a question concerning the future of our girls: How do we create a guaranteed platform and successfully develop their genius? Ironically, since that posting two weeks ago, the first part of the question was answered for me. The Girls in Tech Athens Chapter has drawn the attention of Cisco’s Gender Initiative program—a positive and proven technology platform for young women and girls.
Though the program starts with the bare minimal Windows application skills, given the sluggish evolution of technology in many Greek schools (even schools with international students), this is a magnificent opportunity to track the progress of young women in this area.
My current employer, the International School of Athens, has volunteered the physical platform for GIT and Cisco to introduce the Gender Initiative program. This opportunity could provide a critical measuring tool for GIT; in that, GIT will be able to directly monitor how many women have entered this program and via Facebook or other social media we may be able to directly track the progress of the participants over the years. This metric would add value to Girls in Tech and its contribution to enhancing technology-based opportunities for the global female population.
Additionally, given Cisco’s current market position, this collaborative effort may provide young women with an incentive to look towards technology careers as their bread and butter.
For me, becoming trained as a Cisco Gender Initiative facilitator and heading up GIT Athens are two large feats, but they are literally, two large feet planted for the advancement of women in technology!
