While the 2017-2018 Girls Represent campaign was focused on raising awareness regarding the gender gap in the workforce, the 2018-2019 Girls Represent campaign is focused on giving girls the tools and knowledge to pursue their career aspirations.
Girls Represent was initially founded in September 2017, with the mission of encouraging middle school and high school girls to pursue underrepresented occupations. After seeing the lack of girls in STEM classes and extracurriculars at CHS, Monica Chang and Ashley Miles founded the Girls Represent campaign to close the gender gap earlier on in the Camas community. To do this, they sought out guest speakers by connecting with inspiring female professionals in various male-dominated fields, ranging from STEM to politics to finance, and more. Through a lunchtime Speaker Series and TED Talk Night, high school girls gained valuable insight and career exposure to new fields. At the middle school level, the campaign hosted a career fair at Liberty MS, and collaborated with the Liberty Girls in STEM program. In addition, public awareness days and in-school clubs like Girls Who Code offered high school girls the opportunity to actively pursue their interests.
The 2017-2018 Girls Represent Campaign earned a Top 10 finish internationally at the ICDC in Atlanta, GA.
2017-18 Campaign Events
Events and opportunities provided by Girls Represent:
Speaker Series: Female professionals from the Portland-metro area gave inspiring and informational talks on their careers and their advice for young women who are interested in entering male-dominated fields. Just a few examples of our Speaker Series guest speakers include the first ever Japanese female pilot, a healthcare director, an Architect, and a CS project manager. Talks were given at student lunches in the library with Q&A sessions afterwards.
Middle School Career Fair: Girls Represent recruited leaders from several CHS clubs to draw interest from middle schoolers in politics, computer science, environmentalism, and business. Through this event, middle school girls learned about which careers are typically male-dominated.
TED Talk Night: Girls Represent hosted an event in which six female professionals gave the audience of students a glimpse into their careers as women in male-dominated fields.
Gender Equality Day: Students at CHS wore pink to show support of gender equality.