Project Need

Our students are not aware of the Wilmington Middle School STEAM Magnet's Learning Objectives. It is our team's goal to manifest our school's mission and the student body's awareness of it.  We believe this will propel us farther in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics.

Philosophy

​The reason for becoming a Girls Build LA team, and the idea behind it, is to raise awareness for Latino/Hispanic heritage within our area. We also came together as a team to do something beneficial in our community, to educate people about our culture. In our team, we discuss certain topics that have to do with our project, we each have a say in what we do. Sometimes we do not agree on certain things such as whether or not we should represent Latino/Hispanic men just as much as we do Latino/Hispanic women. We are a group of all girls, so we figured that it would be better to represent more women than men, just to also support all the women who do great things but are underappreciated. Some research we used to resolve this issue was that we recently discovered that there are much less women in the STEM field than men, women are underestimated, the Latino/Hispanic race is underestimated as well. We are a minority, being both women and Latina/Hispanic/Filipina, which gives us an opportunity, a reason, to speak out and raise awareness about it.
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Our Initial Grant Video

Civic Engagement & Leadership

The impact area we will focus on is Civic Engagement & Leadership. Before students can feel like a part of their community, and be aware of the impact they can have, they need to know that this goal is feasible through the example of others. They need to feel pride in their ancestry by understanding their forefathers'/foremothers' real contributions. We seek to educate and empower our school community, so that this can lead to sustainable change and create pride. Through this pride, we can accomplish great things and set our sights to new heights.
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In the short term, I anticipate that by understanding the accomplishments of their Latino(a) predecessors, the students at our school will build some community and cultural pride in themselves and believe that they can accomplish their interim and long-termed goals. They will also hone their artistic abilities and learn technical skills around Photoshop and what it takes to create a product / design on the computer that is intended for production.

For the girls specifically, in the long-term, We're hoping to expose them to the accomplishments of Latinas that they never knew existed and outline how their accomplishments and contributions to our society have been swept aside and undermined by our patriarchal culture. This hopefully will fuel a fire within them to push for more equal treatment and pay, and pursue a career in the STEM fields. Even if they do not, I believe that this project can only affect them to positively make a difference in their community. If it does not, it will make a difference for them in their future lives and for that of their children, as they will be able to educate them to stand up for themselves and help them advocate for themselves in a world that currently tends to overlook their contributions.