By Lisa Ciota, Education Guide, Docent Class of 2020
March is Women’s History Month where we honor the contributions women have and continue to make to our world. But even as we remember the past, we should be looking to the future. At the CAC, we are doing just that with our Girls Build! program.
Girls Build! is a year-round STEAM and leadership development program designed to help girls ages 12 – 15 explore their interests in science, technology, engineering, architecture and construction. Through both hands-on learning and skills-based practices, the goal of Girls Build! is to empower the next generation of women leaders with 21st century leadership skills including critical thinking and problem solving, teamwork and collaboration, and creativity and imagination.
Our Girls Build! program meets on Sundays for 6-week sessions during both the spring and fall. In addition, one-week long camps are offered in spring and summer both in-person as well as virtually, enabling us to reach girls around the world. Typically, each Girls Build! session is centered around a specific theme or topic. Some of the recent Girls Build! themes include: Library Architecture and Community Design, Working Class Women and the Built Environment, Civic Superheroes, Immigrant Stories, and the No Small Plans graphic novel. Importantly, Girls Build! is not a classroom-only experience. The spring session is conducted in a city neighborhood in collaboration with a local community organization, while the fall session is held at various locations around Chicago relevant to that session’s theme.
Girls Build! has served more than 400 participants over the last six years. While most are from the Greater Chicagoland area, we’ve also had girls from states like New York, Minnesota, and Indiana as well as from other countries including Israel, Syria, and Dubai during our virtual summer camps. Admission to the Girls Build! program is on a first come, first served basis. The application process helps us get to know participants before each session begins and determine if financial assistance or other support is important to ensure each girl’s success.
More than 20 public and private organizations support our Girls Build! program. Their ongoing support is important to our continuing and expanding this program. In fact, one of our goals is to be able to run multiple iterations of each session simultaneously in various locations and to build stronger, collaborative community relationships with local organizations to expand and deepen the impact we have on girls and our communities at large. In a way, through Girls Build!, we are helping create tomorrow’s history.