Surviving the Pandemic Through Digital Storytelling
When the world changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CGEST postponed our annual Women of Color in Entrepreneurship Conference. A unique characteristic of this conference is bringing together young women of color and women of color in technological and entrepreneurial professions to discuss solutions to the gender inequity in STEM and foster relationships between mentors and mentees. When the conference was postponed, CGEST’s Dr. Sharon Henderson, Dr. Jessica Solyom, and Hawai’i Pacific University’s Dr. Mary Smith developed “Survivance Through Digital Storytelling,” a virtual summer camp in which the young women selected for the Girls in Tech program could continue to learn critical STEM skills and use digital media to record their stories.
In less than a month, the professors designed this six-week summer camp for girls ages 13-17 to introduce technology as a tool of digital communication, teach project management skills and practice collaborative learning in a digital learning environment. Hawaiian elders participated as guest speakers, discussing indigenous culture systems and the importance of storytelling with the “campers” to assist in their final projects, in which they used the tools they had learned over the past six weeks to document how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected them and their community and what they had been doing in order to survive. The girls used cartoons, videos, short movies and interviews with community leaders to tell their stories and demonstrate the technological skills they had learned during the camp. Dr. Henderson and Dr. Solyom are proud of CGEST’s ability to think outside the box and continue engaging with girls of color and helping them find their identity through STEM.
CGEST would like to thank Hawai’i Pacific University for their ongoing partnership and Dr. Mary Smith for her contribution to the camp.
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