Members of my Global Delivery Center (GDC) Public Sector Team at Cisco’s campus in North Carolina recently spent an evening with more than 60 Girl Scouts, who all have a passion in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
Girl Scouts, North Carolina Coastal Pines (GS-NCCP) serves girls and adults in 41 counties in central and eastern North Carolina. Through this program, girls develop leadership skills while learning the important of personal responsibility, the value of goal setting, the spirit of teamwork, and the thrill of accomplishment.
The girls visited Cisco on July 18, when 15 Cisco employees and college interns gave them a tour of Cisco’s lab, TelePresence technology, and Security Operations. The Public Sector team led the TelePresence portion of the night, during which Cisco’s TelePresence technology was shown off to the girls with an exciting game of charades and Pictionary.
At the end of the game, we shared with the girls how the TelePresence technology is used during our day-to-day lives at Cisco. They were amazed to hear that we were able to meet with people in other states and countries all over the world with such ease.
Cisco’s Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, Padmasree Warrior, recently wrote “Girls at a young age must have something that sparks their interest in technology or science.” As the Girl Scouts entered the conference room to see another group of Girl Scouts in another building on three large screens, they shouted out beyond disbelief, “Oh! They can hear us?” By the end of the night, with quotes like “I want one of these at my house!” it was easy to see that Cisco definitely sparked every Girl Scouts’ interest in technology.
Exposing kids to technology and possibility is the stuff that helps them set their direction and inspire them to start taking the steps to achieve.
Participating in an event like this with the Girl Scouts when I was in high school helped me decide that I liked technology, but did NOT want to be an engineer. And today — a few, err, years later — I’m right in the middle of the technology industry. I just happen to be marketing it insetad of creating it.
The more kids see beyond their day-to-day lives opens them to imagining greater options for the future.
My 11 yr daughter was in that group, and asked me if I had one of those in my office. lol She was amazed at what Cisco does and all that she saw. She wants to come to work with me and see it all live and in action.
What a Great camp and program that Cisco and the Girl Scouts hosted. This event made me proud to work at Cisco.
Thank you Cisco!
Looks like a great event with the wow-factor to get STEMs excited about technology! Thanks to all our Cisco Women who stepped up to making an impact in our future as well as theirs.
Great cisco my request is please introduce this training programme for south eastern country specially India where
Government of India promoting Skill development programme
in engineering and vocation college.
Great event. It is so nice to see more and more girls getting excited about IT. Thanks to all who made this possible.