Warriors and Rakuten inspire future engineers with STEAM experience
Warriors and Rakuten inspire future engineers with STEAM
The Golden State Warriors and Rakuten hosted 20 middle school girls at Chase Center for a hands-on learning experience aimed at encouraging careers in STEAM—science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.
SAN FRANCISCO - The Golden State Warriors and Rakuten hosted 20 middle school girls at Chase Center for a hands-on learning experience aimed at encouraging careers in STEAM—science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.
The event, called Building STEAM Futures, gave eighth-graders from Girls Inc. of Alameda County the opportunity to work with experts and build various types of bridges.
Guided by professionals from the Engineering Alliance for the Arts and the UC Berkeley Steel Bridge Team, the students learned about bridge construction, environmental impact, and sustainability. The experts also shared personal experiences of pursuing careers in STEAM.
What they're saying:
"The most inspiring is seeing all the women in this type of field, usually that is men-dominated, and seeing what we can do in the future," Lydia Ung, an eighth-grader, said.
Hannah Thompson, a design engineer with Degenkolb Engineers and the Engineering Alliance for the Arts, added, "Young women should be encouraged to go into the STEAM professions. I had the benefit of being encouraged as a young woman, and I think it’s really great to be offered that opportunity to middle school girls. So the goal here is to give them an opportunity to build some bridges, get some boots on the ground, as we would say it, experience with engineering."
The students tested their own bridge prototypes after learning the fundamentals of construction.
"For me, it’s definitely like how women can literally do anything, and this just opens so many doors for us," eighth-grader Ailani Alejandre said.
The backstory:
The event was part of the Warriors and Rakuten’s The City Calls campaign, which celebrates the team's Golden Gate Bridge-inspired City Edition uniform.
Earlier this year, students from Girls Inc. took a behind-the-scenes tour of the iconic landmark and learned about its history from a female senior civil engineer from the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.
"I hope this day provides confidence for them, encourages them that their voice matters, helps them gain more leadership skills, being able to lead, and also encourages them to just present and opens up doors for them to see what opportunities are available for them," said Selena Solorio, Community Engagement and Corporate Relations Manager with Girls Inc. of Alameda County.
The girls also attended the Warriors’ Women’s Empowerment Month game against the Detroit Pistons at Chase Center.