#FIRSTLikeAGirl

[tab1a]

This is great. I've been wanting to launch a Girls in STEM campaign for my own team and I was wondering: how did you get the support needed for this from the team members and mentors? I have a few students on my team that are skeptical of such a campaign. Thank you!

[The Swaggy P]

Usually I disapprove of pro-girl systems in FIRST, purely because these systems tend to blame the opposite gender for their lack of participation.

But here, you seem to be encouraging girls to join the FIRST community without bringing up equality or gender treatment. Kudos to you for taking a much friendlier approach.

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by The Swaggy P

Usually I disapprove of pro-girl systems in FIRST, purely because these systems tend to blame the opposite gender for their lack of participation.

But here, you seem to be encouraging girls to join the FIRST community without bringing up equality or gender treatment. Kudos to you for taking a much friendlier approach.

There is an important sub-thread here. Most people, and rightly so, object to a pro-(fill in the blank) system of equality. They just simply want everyone to be treated equally, and given equal opportunity, period.

A good message can do is convey 'identity'. When the viewer sees the video or picture they think - "I see someone that's like ME, maybe I can to that too."

I have interviewed students about recruiting and a comment I get is that "when the first time I walk in and look around, is this a group of people that I can be with, work with, be friends with? Are they like ME?". ( Sounds like a job interview )

I am an old guy and have lived in the pre-civil rights era and I have seen a lot of things in my life!

Right now there is a movie that was released just a few days ago on HBO called "All The Way". It is about the life of President Lyndon B. Johnson during his tenure as President. It was a difficult movie to make because it had to take thousands of pages of historical facts and reduce it to 2 hours of script. Some areas of his life you could write a book on and it was reduced to two or three lines of script.

When you watch the movie, play close attention to all the roles people play, black and white, male and female, in that movie. Look at who is serving the food, and who is eating the food, shining the shoes, wearing the shoes, etc.

Kids are sponges. They learn all day long, not just in school, but from the time they wake up to the time they go to sleep.

Kids are going to "be what they see". ( which coincidentally is a good piece of advice for mentors )

I know it sounds very cliche, those posters where you look at them and say, wow, that was really staged, they have everyone archetype person in the universe in the photo, but nevertheless, it is important to create messages where kids can see and identify with the person and make a connection.

This is a chance to do a really good job at this and not be over the top and overbearing about it. Thread the needle !!

Keep up the good work.

[EliseCH]

Originally Posted by tab1a

This is great. I've been wanting to launch a Girls in STEM campaign for my own team and I was wondering: how did you get the support needed for this from the team members and mentors? I have a few students on my team that are skeptical of such a campaign. Thank you!

I am excited to hear the comments, as others here noticed the FIRST Like a Girl videos are meant to be positive, encouraging and personal.

I love the girls on my team and noticed that confidence seems to be a huge aspect of girls not joining and/or stepping up more. I wanted to help girls see others girls like them doing really cool stuff and think, "Hey that's cool! I could do that too!" And, I have already seen the confidence of the subjects of the videos increase in the way they interact with me. It is so encouraging!

Key points to help your team see the value.

- Positive Message. "Encouraging girls to join the FIRST community without bringing up equality or gender treatment." as The Swaggy P mentioned in a previous reply. No negativity, comparisons or blame -- just celebrating what they do and love about their experience.
- Personal Stories. Helping prospective girls see the "real" girls on our team and what they are involved in, so maybe they can relate to some of the girls and the type of things they like and give it a try.
- This is not a big investment of time to create and commit to. You can do 1 video and see what kid of response you get. Ours has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive.
- This program was conceived by, interviews are done by and edited by females. I don't think this is necessary or practical for every team, but hopefully knowing the background of the initial endeavor helps.
- Not everyone will interview well on camera. And, often not the ones you think will. Our subjects have been some of our quietest kids. And, they came across GREAT!
- The interviewees are given final approval on the videos. This is really important. No one wants to “look stupid”. Control gives them the confidence to know no one will make them “look bad”. It has been a huge selling point for their interviewees. No one has yet to object to their video :-)
- We are also working on personal stories of the boys on the team as well. Because we want boys to be able to relate to our team members as well. The students are excited to share their stories and I look forward to seeing how this helps with our recruitment and their confidence in the coming season too.
On a more technical note… it also really helps that we have organized video with an uncomplicated structure, simple and to the point. They have been fairly easy to put together.
-- Filming takes about 10-15 minutes per student. Setting up, placing the microphone, rewording and repeating as necessary.
-- The girls have been really thoughtful about their “robotics story”. But we also have some interview questions to help make sure we have enough content.
-- We include 5-7 pictures of their involvement.
-- And, keep each to only about a minute. (I will be looking into the other recommendations made)

If you like the videos, I hope you will go to our facebook page and share our latest video of Kate from Bacon Builders FLL Team 8265! https://www.facebook.com/explodingba...3707898873741/