The female half of Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University is a regular participant in various educational projects, grant programs, internships. The traditional event, which is joined by the girls of our University is the hackathon «Hack4Good: як зацікавити дівчат технологіями».
In the period from 3 to 5 October 2021, the hackathon «Hack4Good: як зацікавити дівчат технологіями» took place. The event was organized by CSR Ukraine, expert organization «Центр “Розвиток Корпоративної Соціальної Відповідальності”» the “Дівчата STEM” and UNFPA initiative, the United Nations Population Fund within the framework of the “Springboard for Equality” project with the support of Sweden and with the assistance of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration.
The main purpose of the hackathon is to increase the level of knowledge of girls about gender equality and teach them design thinking in order to develop team projects aimed at encouraging girls to technical specialties.
The selection of participants aged 16 to 24, who are students of higher and vocational education institutions and who study in technical specialties or are students of any other field and are interested in technological areas, was held on a competitive basis. In total, 240 applications for participation from motivated girls from different parts of Ukraine were sent to the organizing committee. Based on the completed motivation, 40 people were selected, including Anna Rosomakha, a first-year master’s student majoring in Secondary Education (Physics).
During the three days of online communication, the contestants took part in a series of master classes on creating effective presentations and pitching, attended a session on design thinking and gender equality.
The main form of interaction was teamwork on project ideas that will help make STEM-professions interesting for girls. The ideas were implemented accompanied by mentors. At the final briefing, each team presented the result of their work in the format of a presentation (PowerPoint, Goggle Slides etc.).
Anna Rosomakha tells (translated): “It was a very interesting hackathon. It was necessary to develop a project that will help interest girls in STEM in three days period. We were divided into teams of six participants from different cities of Ukraine, a total of seven. My group was called “4future”. The idea of our project is to create a motivating video with prominent women in the IT field and a career test that will help girls find a STEM profession according to their skills. We intend to do an interactive testing, the questions of which will meet psychological standards and gender sensitivity”.
According to the results of hackathon, the team of winners was determined, which turned out to be the team of the representative of Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University. The girls received a cash reward of 96 thousand UAH for the implementation of the plan within two months. Participants were convinced that events of this format motivate women to engage in technical activities, develop creative thinking and promote the first steps in their careers.
Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University congratulates Anna Rosomakha on her victory and wishes her a successful project!