SAN ANGELO, Texas — The Girl Scouts of Central West Texas are aiming to bridge the gap for young women and girls within the STEM and STEAM worlds.
STEM includes for science, technology, engineering and math. STEAM incorporates art and music, along with the others.
The programs strive to create learning and engaging programs and events that encourage young women and girls to pursue careers within these industries, while also learning the skills to get there.
Kayla Robinson, Girl Scouts of Central Texas STEM program specialist, says they are hoping to achieve the STEM initiative and goal by the year 2025. She is striving to get more girls into the STEM pipeline because of the decrease of the represented female population in both STEM and STEAM.
"With the technology world growing so fast, we want to make sure that girls are equipped. We don't want them to fill left out as far as education and job availability goes," Robinson said.
Katherine Johnson, a legendary NASA mathematician, died this week. For Robinson, she hopes that Johnson's legacy inspires girls and women to get into STEM and STEAM.
“Everyday I see girls that aspire to be Katherine Johnson so I’m very proud that we got a chance to get to know her and know her attributions to the space science world. The STEM world and from here on out, we hope that we can give her legacy something beautiful in the girls that we put into this career field,” Robinson said.
Girls also have the opportunity to continue to learn through computer skills in the Girl Scouts of Central Texas Dance Party program.
The Girl Scouts STEM Conference is coming up in March, where the Central Texas council will be touching base on the STEAM aspect.
Robinson said, "It's just something different to show the them the availability. A lot of times girls just see the STEM occupation as just a hollowed custom. The doctors, the lawyers. Maybe an engineer here or there, but they don't necessarily know the big world that STEM and STEAM has to offer. So the more we expose them to, the better chance they have."
Girls Scouts of Central Texas are hoping to give girls a different experience at this year’s event. The event will include a musical engineering class where participants will have the opportunity to remix songs that they hear on the radio.