We can’t believe it either. Wednesday 12th February was the Stemettes’ one-year anniversary, and we held our 1st Birthday Party on Saturday 15th Feb, as many of you will know! When people look at us aghast when we say it has only been a year since we launched in Google Campus on Pancake Day last year, we feel that same sense of shock inside of us; it’s only that we’ve repeated the phrase, and had the opportunity for the same reaction, so many times that we no longer externalise it. And as Anne-Marie often says – no one is more surprised than she is.
We celebrated in the classic Stemettes way – big, bold and bouncy. 100 people signed up for tickets online for our agenda of workshops from Flux Dance Theatre who got us bouncing around the room, learning the forces; a STEM television workshop with TV producers as research for their latest little STEM girl character; radiographer, Brooke Roberts, who uses medical scans to design patterns for knitwear and clothing; and Takita Takita who merge fashion, costume, design and maths. All of this set to a backdrop of sandwiches and cake (thank you to Lopa for our wonderful personalised Stemettes cake) to feed the thousands, and the very very cool Telefonica office we borrowed for the day thanks to Telefonica Digital and O2 Think Big. Amusingly, the untippable bright yellow chairs may have been the biggest success of the day, with kids (and adults) whizzing round and round on it for the 3-hour duration of the afternoon. Whatever floats your boat!
We spent some time looking back over what we had achieved over the course of one year. From the 550+ girls and 9 events to Head Stemette being invited to speak at a round table at 10 Downing Street; from all of the fantastic support and funding we have received from so many generous people, to running a mini hack at the BETT conference where we met the voice of Siri! We have seen a 22% increase in girls wanting to work in Science and an 18% increase in girls who knew women working in Technology after one of our hackathons. It is safe to say that all of us at the Stemettes have moved faster and further, gone bigger and better and made more impact than we ever expected in such a short space of time. It has truly been wonderful to see.
Thank you to all of you who came along and took part, with your enthusiasm, sense of fun and laughter in tow. Whether you are one of our Little Stemettes or Big Stemettes, a Stemette supporter, a parent or guardian, auntie or uncle or sponsor. Or even if you couldn’t make the event but were thinking of us wherever you were and whatever you were doing. As Anne-Marie said on the day – we couldn’t do it without the support of all of you, especially the girls whose enthusiasm and love of STEM keep them returning back to our Stemettes arms time and time again. So, thank you.
What does 2014 and year #2 hold for the Stemettes? So as not to give too many of our secrets away, you can expect more of the same – but bigger and better! Reaching more girls, putting on more events, partnering with more people and bringing more change to girls in STEM. Check out our Flickr and Facebook albums with snaps from the event, or watch the video up on YouTube.
We always welcome your feedback, so if you have any reflections on the year or ideas for the future, please send us an email. We’d love to hear from you!
Thanks again,
~ Team Stemette.
