The second annual Girl Powered Connect events took place at the 2018 VEX Robotics World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky just a few weeks ago. Over +1,000 students, teachers and mentors attended worldwide.
During the VRC Girl Powered Connect, we had the pleasure of hosting Alie Ward, a Daytime Emmy Award-winning science correspondent for CBS’s “The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation with Mo Rocca,” and co-host of the GE series “In the Wild,” alongside “Mythbuster’s” Adam Savage. She also appears on Science Channel’s “How to Build Everything,” two upcoming 2018 Netflix science shows, and Cooking Channel’s “Food: Fact or Fiction.”
Alie studied both science & film in college and was a staff writer/editor for the Los Angeles Times. She volunteers at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and is a co-founder of the science communication collective Nerd Brigade. She co-hosted the popular comedy podcast “Slumber Party with Alie & Georgia” and now hosts “Ologies,” a comedic science podcast for adults.
The room was totally captivated by what Alie had to share with them, and we wanted to reiterate her message to everyone and to those who couldn’t attend.
Here are the five best pieces of advice Alie has gotten from the geniuses she has worked with and interviewed over the years.
Sometimes you may feel outnumbered, but being in a room with everyone here at the Girl Powered Connect, you’re making history.
How to: kick butt, take names, and make history in STEM.
5. Be passionate.
Nerds are awesome. Just. Be. You. You don't have to change anything to impress anyone. Embrace what you’re passionate about and lean into that. Passion is what fuels success. Passion guides you.
4. Don’t hide your ideas.
If you have an idea, don’t wait until it’s perfect to start acting on it. Just make them. It will be never be perfect until (ever) but the only way to get something done is just to jump into it and try your best.
3. Get help.
The most successful innovators aren’t afraid to ask for help. Just because you don’t ask for help doesn't mean you're better, it just means the process will take you longer. Get a mentor. Mentors like helping. There's a huge myth in STEM that if you belong here you know everything. Not accurate. Science is discovery. Science isn’t a destination it's a process. And the same goes with robotics.
2. Failure is success.
Don’t be afraid to fail. Everytime you fail, you're learning something else and you're one step closer to success. Success is a series of iterations. The only way to truly fail is to give up or to never try in the first place.
1. Show up like you belong, and have fun.
Stress is just fear, and generally that fear is that you aren’t good enough. You don't have to be perfect (no one is!) you just have to roll with challenges and keep going. Your minds are super valuable, your voices need to be heard, and your ideas are good. You all are the ones that will be mentoring the next generation.
