What happened at the international education event, FIRST Global 2017 Challenge, was more than just a robotics competition. The event held in Washington DC, which hosted young people from 150 countries, was an opportunity to build bridges, demonstrate resiliency, crush stereotypes and damaging misperceptions, think creatively, and collaborate cross-culturally.
Countries were paired with other countries, students often not speaking the same language. They had to learn to communicate and come up with solutions together. The problem they were tasked to solve? Chipping away at the world’s clean, accessible, drinkable water crisis.
The girls in Afghanistan had so many obstacles to get this done, starting with difficulty accessing education because of their gender, zero experience in robotics, and being denied visas TWICE to the US for the competition. When Afghanistan arrived they were cheered the loudest.
A girl from Honduras had to travel two hours just to reach her school.
A girl from Liberia spoke of having to wait for night time to work on the project because of unreliable electricity.
A girl from Nepal said she and her classmates felt intimidated by countries like Japan and the US because those countries had so much access to technology and science education, but she felt much more confident and happy when she arrived and made friends with everyone.
With all of these obstacles, they powered through and THEY DID IT! I’m especially moved by the girls that participated. With girls around the world being discouraged from exploring STEM fields, they made up only 20% of the entire event. To hear them speak about why they wanted to do this, how important education was to forge a better life for their fellow citizens and for the world in general was such an inspiration.
One of the reasons why I love working with adolescents is, despite all the obstacles they face, so many of them find a way to keep going and to imagine a better world. Our role as adults is to make sure that ALL young people (no matter what nation they are from, what gender they are, what race they are, how much wealth they have) find this hope and resiliency. Our jobs as adults is to create opportunities for these young people to express their vision for the future, and create value for others. And then we need to LISTEN to them and get out of the way. Our future depends on this and our lives are made richer when we do!