The McMinnville School District has launched the Women in Tech (WIT) project in collaboration with Salesforce, the world’s #1 CRM and Customer Success Platform.
The collaboration features support from Salesforce.org and mentoring from Salesforce employees.
Middle and high school girls who attended summer STEM camps offered by the McMinnville School District (MSD) were invited to join the project. Girls will form collaborative work groups based on a specific STEM interest and work together on a project designed to address an “essential question” that will guide the group’s learning experience.
The groups will work on projects ranging from coding, robotics, graphic design and game design. The groups will meet (virtually) with their mentor twice monthly through May when they will present and defend their projects at a presentation in the Salesforce Portland campus.
In November, 28 of the girls visited the Salesforce campus to kick off the project and participate in a panel discussion featuring Salesforce software engineers, tech support, and customer support professionals who talked about following their passion in life and work and giving back to the community.
“This is part of our district focus to prepare students for 21st century jobs,” said Stephanie Legard, MSD director of STEAM. “Besides encouraging more girls to enter STEM fields, this project is intended to help young people learn the value of collaboration and teamwork, which are critical skills in today’s job market.”
The girls also toured the high-tech Salesforce facility and formed teams for the Marshmallow Challenge, a hands-on activity intended to spark thoughts about collaboration and assumptions.
McMinnville High School teachers Andrea Brown and Audrey Wright will provide advisory support for the project. The project plans to expand to include other students who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).
To learn more about Salesforce.org, please visit www.salesforce.org.