RALEIGH–It’s almost back-to-school for most middle school students in the Triangle, and 50 rising middle school students will get a jump on career exploration and soft skill development at an upcoming workshop hosted in partnership by The Capitol Women’s Network, TechGirlz, and Capitol Broadcasting Company (editor’s note: WRAL TechWire is owned by Capitol Broadcasting Company).
The Newsroom Story Production Workshop is already full to capacity and runs the afternoon of Thursday, August 9, 2018, at WRAL-TV on Western Boulevard in Raleigh. Participants are rising sixth, seventh, and eighth grade girls from across the Triangle, said Lisa Chappell, an account executive at WRAL Digital Solutions and a member of The Capitol Women’s Network committee that is partnering to facilitate the event.
Participants will learn how to produce great stories in the same manner that modern collaborative newsrooms use to produce high-quality print, video, and digital content to tell effective and compelling stories, said Chappell.
“This will be a chance to impact a new generation of women,” said Chappell, “Storytelling is the basis of impactful media, from news articles to slideshows to videos.” Participants will even learn how to utilize mobile devices to produce photo and video content, and hear from a panel of women that fill a variety of roles in broadcasting.
TechGirlz works to make learning technology thrilling and inviting for middle school girls, said Alicia Park, the national outreach manager for TechGirlz, who will attend the workshop. “By helping young girls discover, embrace, and advance technology-related skills from a young age,” said Park, “TechGirlz is helping to empower future generations of women economically so they can find their voice.”
Alicia Park. TechGirlz photo.
Nationwide, women filled 47 percent of all U.S. jobs in 2015, but held only 24 percent of STEM jobs, according to a 2017 report from the office of the chief economist in the U.S. Department of Commerce. The report also found that the gender wage gap is smaller in STEM jobs than in non-STEM jobs. And yet, the industry is forecast to be short by as many as one million workers by 2020, said Park. “These women will go on to fill the open jobs so desperately in need of talent today.”
TechGirlz expanding in the Triangle
TechGirlz programs and workshops have now reached more than 14,000 middle school girls nationwide, said Park, with astonishing growth in the last three years. Yet the biggest obstacle that the organization faces is the misconception of STEM skills and careers, said Park. Many people misunderstand STEM, confusing the multitude of STEM career paths with coding and computer programming positions, she said.
“We need to help parents and children alike understand that STEM opens the door to a broad set of skills, industries, and eventually jobs,” said Park. “The current and future employment market needs females that know how to do more than code because all times of technologies are revolutionizing every conceivable field.”
While programming has been available in the Triangle for five years, said Park, there has been a recent uptick in interest and desire for additional workshops through Triangle TechGirlz. “We are making a purposeful expansion nationally,” said Park, “with Raleigh being one of our focused cities.”
The upcoming Newsroom Story Production workshop filled within the first few hours, and the wait list is already more than 50 people long. Despite limited space in the workshop, said Park, there are additional ways folks of all ages may wish to get involved
One is through the delivery of an open-source curriculum, TechShopz in a Box, that any volunteer can access and deploy to teach STEM skills to middle schoolers in their community, said Park. “There is so much for our TechGirlz to experience and we strive to add more topics and workshop selection to our open-source library to ensure they are seeing all that the world of tech has to offer them,” said Park.
