GM and Girl Scouts Encourage Girls to Pursue STEM Careers
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GM recently elaborated on its track record of encouraging youngsters to study STEM. Under Mary Barra’s leadership, the company gave a large grant to the Girl Scouts to equip girls with the resources they need to pursue STEM careers.
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The partnership
According to Detroit Free Press contributor Jamie L. LaReau, GM gave$1 million to the organization to fund its development of STEM programming. The automaker also helped Girl Scouts establish an automotive engineering curriculum. Young participants can earn badges in the areas of vehicle manufacturing, engineering, and designing.
Barra and Acevedo’s personal interest in STEM
Both Barra and Girl Scouts of the USA CEO Sylvia Acevedo, expressed their personal interest in and experience with STEM. In a webinar, Barra articulated how her passion for cars and engineering was inspired by her dad who worked for GM for nearly four decades. “I liked math and science in school and so engineering seemed like a natural pathway for me when I started college.”
Acevedo cites an overnight camping trip as a Girl Scout Brownie, and a conversation with a camp leader, as one of the earliest experiences that triggered her interest in astronomy. She soon embarked on a career trajectory that culminated with her position as an engineer with NASA. During this role, she wrote algorithms for the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
The two leaders articulated their endorsement of the new partnership that will help prepare the next generation of female STEM leaders. Acevedo refers to the field of engineering as “a doorway” for solving real-world problems. Barra expressed how the auto industry’s evolution has created a need for more talented automotive engineering professionals. She stated that GM needs more women with a STEM background to support future initiatives and products.
Read more about GM’s past sponsorship of STEM projects in the company’s hometown of Detroit. Then learn how women played a key role in developing a hands-free system and about the growing surge of female professionals in the auto design field.
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Whitney Russell resides in Dayton, though her spirit can be found beach-bumming in Puerto Rico (the land of her half-Puerto Rican heritage). When not crafting car-related content, she can be found chasing after the most amazing toddler in the world, watching her “beaver” of a husband build amazing woodworking projects, hanging out with two crazy dogs, and visiting family and friends. She also enjoys traveling, crafting, and binge-watching period dramas when time allows. See more articles by Whitney.