As Women’s History Month approaches in March, there will be an onslaught of Women in Tech events and articles as well. And in Albuquerque, New Mexico, it will be young women who will be writing tech history—six 5th and 6th graders ages 10-12 years old, in fact.
These bright young ladies won first place in the New Mexico FIRST Lego League Regional Championship Robotics Tournament on Janauary 31st—competing with 117 teams which even included high schoolers. What an accomplishment!
The girls worked countless hours to design, build and program their robot. They conducted research (even reaching out to an e-book author in the Netherlands) to develop a cutting-edge technology solution for the tournament’s project competition. The project theme for teams across the world was to “improve education in the classroom” and the girls created an adaptive, personalized e-book, “Adaptasaurus”, that can capture your learning style as you read and adjust itself accordingly.
Now, they have been selected to compete for the World Championship, matching their skills, wits and accomplishments against those of similar teams from around the world. They will be one of the youngest teams participating in the event, which takes place April 22-25 in St. Louis, Missouri.
This is a tremendous achievement, but the girls need your help: They are raising $25,000 to pay for the cost of participating in the event, as well as the travel and lodging for the week-long event.
Brain Hackers Association, a local nonprofit, is helping the girls raise funds through @Pay Donation Buttons, @Pay Donation Texts, and @Pay QR Codes. You can simply text the word “give” to 505-933-8393. You can also simply text the dollar amount you would like to give to that same phone number (i.e. $100 would be “100”), and you’ll receive a text message asking for your confirmation of the amount. Contributions are tax-deductible.
If your company is interested in being a corporate sponsor, they are adding logos to their event t-shirts for business who would like to support. Contact James Forsythe, president of Brain Hackers Association, at jcforsy@gmail.com.
Congratulations to Team Rhinososauruses: Annie Miller, Gaby Delgado, Kasey Forsythe, Katy Ice-Johnson, Natalie Starry, and Naomi Eberling! @Pay and the entire Albuquerque community are immensely proud of your achievements and are rooting for you!
