Recorded in front of a live audience, this special episode of the What a Relief Podcast features B.C. Dodge and co-host Nouf Samarkandi as they chat with a special group of inspiring guests who are part of a program known as Tech Girls. This is one episode you don’t want to miss!
The three young women, hailing from different countries across the Middle East and North Africa, are bright teenage students with highly defined interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. Their interests range from web development to programming to robotics to artificial intelligence.
The girls spent 23 days touring the United States visiting different technology companies. While stateside, they networked with leading innovative companies and entrepreneurs. They stopped to spend a day at the Islamic Relief USA headquarters just outside of Washington, D.C. in Alexandria, Virginia.
Maram, a bright Algerian 16-year-old, is only in her second year of high school but has a keen interest in web development. Sohila, who is 17-year-old and from Egypt, expertly explains how STEM fields can be applied to bring benefit to others. Tunisian 17-year-old Yasmine speaks about her love of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and her dream of launching her own mobile app.
Beyond their impressive STEM interests, the girls also expressed interests in parallel fields such as painting, art, and ecology.
Co-host Nouf, Communications Coordinator at IRUSA, had the opportunity to spend the day with the girls. She praised them for their self-directed interests, remarking that it was inspiring for her to see that “such a young generation is inspired at this age to motivate themselves…for them to be personally involved in that and look for it themselves makes me think that I wasted a lot of my time.”
The girls toured various IRUSA departments, commenting that the Marketing and Public Affairs departments interested them most, due to their campaign and advocacy work.
The Tech Girls program began in 2012 and is designed to inspire and empower girls from the Middle East and North Africa to pursue deeper level of training in technology through hands-on skills development. It’s a global youth program of the U.S. Department of State, administered by Legacy International.
“What a Relief!” is the official podcast of Islamic Relief USA. Hosted by digital media specialist B.C. Dodge, IRUSA’s “What a Relief!” puts a human face on what’s going on in the world and how you can enact positive change in it. New episodes every week!
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