50 min
Empowering Women Podcast S3: Abi Olukeye, Raising Next Gen STEM The Empowering Women Podcast
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- Careers
Episode 8 (Season 3) of the Empowering Women Podcast
GUEST: Abi Olukeye, Founder of Smart Girls HQ
BIO: Abi Olukeye is the founder/CEO of Smart Girls HQ, A National Science Foundation Award Winning STEM education solutions provider that creates engaging content and facilitates exciting experiences to enable young girls achieve STEM Career Literacy by age 12. Core offerings include parent education for STEM informal learning at RaisingSmartGirls.com and Dear Smart Girl kits, a project based career-focused STEM curriculum for girls.
Previously, she led Internet of Things (IOT) strategy development and digital transformation projects at a diversified Fortune 500 manufacturing company. She has over fifteen years of professional and leadership experience spanning new product development, technology commercialization, process improvement and strategy.
CONNECT WITH ABI OLUKEYE
Instagram (@aolukeye) LinkedIn
CONNECT WITH SMART GIRLS HQ
Raising Smart Girls Website Instagram (@raisingsmartgirls) Facebook (@raisingsmartgirls)
Twitter (@smartgirlshq)
Watch on YouTube.
LINKS
Empowering Women Website
Empowering Women Slack Channel
Empowering Women 2021 Event Info (Including Registration)
Empowering Women Events (Including Meet Ups)
QUOTES
“The magical STEM moment for me…I was working in Microsoft Word, doing homework, and suddenly I just noticed all the little bits of UI that made it work. I am thinking to myself, ‘somebody put this together – somebody decided we should have a menu, somebody decided we should have this white space.’ I was just completely fascinated with the idea that there was this artist and their canvas was this technology.”
“In my head there was no ‘boys can do something girls can’t do.”
“It wasn’t an aptitude problem – with me or with girls. I made my senior year project a curriculum for girls and got to test that out at a middle school. It is a full circle moment for what I am doing now.”
Career challenge: “While I had the language of computer science down, I lacked the language of manufacturing”.
Career Challenge: “At time, just feeling underestimated. I felt like there were moments in my career where people just ‘assumed’. They ended up being the best moments; people were blindsided about their blind spots about me.”
“I feel like guys get the benefit of potential and women’s evaluation is based on performance.”
Advice: “Work is always going to speak the loudest. People are going to put aside the biases as they need the results.”
Advice: “Picking the moments to stand up for yourself.”
Why Smart Girls HQ?: “My daughters were showing me this problem was still very real. Why can’t we accomplish the same with social impact problems like we do with corporate processes? I wanted to see if I could do something that would pour as much into me as I was pouring into it.”
“By age 12 is when girls start to lean away from STEM. The two large candlesticks, adding up to ~90%, are the child’s personal experience and their parent’s influence.”&nbs
Episode 8 (Season 3) of the Empowering Women Podcast
GUEST: Abi Olukeye, Founder of Smart Girls HQ
BIO: Abi Olukeye is the founder/CEO of Smart Girls HQ, A National Science Foundation Award Winning STEM education solutions provider that creates engaging content and facilitates exciting experiences to enable young girls achieve STEM Career Literacy by age 12. Core offerings include parent education for STEM informal learning at RaisingSmartGirls.com and Dear Smart Girl kits, a project based career-focused STEM curriculum for girls.
Previously, she led Internet of Things (IOT) strategy development and digital transformation projects at a diversified Fortune 500 manufacturing company. She has over fifteen years of professional and leadership experience spanning new product development, technology commercialization, process improvement and strategy.
CONNECT WITH ABI OLUKEYE
Instagram (@aolukeye) LinkedIn
CONNECT WITH SMART GIRLS HQ
Raising Smart Girls Website Instagram (@raisingsmartgirls) Facebook (@raisingsmartgirls)
Twitter (@smartgirlshq)
Watch on YouTube.
LINKS
Empowering Women Website
Empowering Women Slack Channel
Empowering Women 2021 Event Info (Including Registration)
Empowering Women Events (Including Meet Ups)
QUOTES
“The magical STEM moment for me…I was working in Microsoft Word, doing homework, and suddenly I just noticed all the little bits of UI that made it work. I am thinking to myself, ‘somebody put this together – somebody decided we should have a menu, somebody decided we should have this white space.’ I was just completely fascinated with the idea that there was this artist and their canvas was this technology.”
“In my head there was no ‘boys can do something girls can’t do.”
“It wasn’t an aptitude problem – with me or with girls. I made my senior year project a curriculum for girls and got to test that out at a middle school. It is a full circle moment for what I am doing now.”
Career challenge: “While I had the language of computer science down, I lacked the language of manufacturing”.
Career Challenge: “At time, just feeling underestimated. I felt like there were moments in my career where people just ‘assumed’. They ended up being the best moments; people were blindsided about their blind spots about me.”
“I feel like guys get the benefit of potential and women’s evaluation is based on performance.”
Advice: “Work is always going to speak the loudest. People are going to put aside the biases as they need the results.”
Advice: “Picking the moments to stand up for yourself.”
Why Smart Girls HQ?: “My daughters were showing me this problem was still very real. Why can’t we accomplish the same with social impact problems like we do with corporate processes? I wanted to see if I could do something that would pour as much into me as I was pouring into it.”
“By age 12 is when girls start to lean away from STEM. The two large candlesticks, adding up to ~90%, are the child’s personal experience and their parent’s influence.”&nbs
50 min