Eastern Michigan University hosted the annual Digital Divas event on Nov. 4. Middle school girls participated in hands-on breakout sessions throughout the day. The girls that attended the event learned about technology and the advantages of studying technology. The mission of Digital Divas is to connect young female students to career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“I hope the girls take home what they learned today and decide to explore it more,” said Bia Aahamed, coordinator of Digital Divas.
Teachers then nominate certain students to attend. Around 3,000 girls have participated in Digital Divas over the past years.
Mohamad Qatu, Dean of College of Technology, Rhonda Longworth, Provost and Executive Vice President of EMU, Stephanie Price, Software Engineer at Promess, Neelima Rama, Director of Llammasoft, and Katelyn Coberley, EMU Information of Science student, spoke to the Digital Divas before they attended their breakout sessions.
Breakout sessions consisted of STEM learning activities, networking with professional women and EMU student led workshops. Jasmine English, third-year Computer Science student and Rebecca Raiford, third-year simulation, animation and gaming student taught the Building a Website workshop.
“I volunteer because no one told me at the middle school age that Digital Divas was an option or even a possibility. I don’t think I even played on computers until I was in high school,” said Jasmine English.
Gerald “Skip” Lawver founded Digital Divas seven years ago to increase the number of females in the field of technology. In addition, other large companies such as AT&T, ITC Holdings, DTE Energy, Consumers Energy and Llamasoft support Digital Divas because they want more female workers in the technology field.
