Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC has held a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) hackathon in commemoration of International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
The hackathon held at Accra High School was under the global theme for this year’s celebration “Women and Girls in Science Leadership, a New Era for Sustainability”, and designed to spark interest in STEM careers among young girls in senior high school in Ghana.
The hackathon kicked off with an interactive mentoring session for selected female students from Accra High School and Labone Senior High School.
The mentoring session was led by women professionals from Standard Chartered, who shared best practices on essential skills and other qualities like time management, goal setting and staying focused on one’s goals.
The programme is in alignment with Futuremakers by Standard Chartered, the Bank’s global youth economic empowerment initiative to support disadvantaged young people especially women and people living with disabilities to learn, earn and grow. Futuremakers emphasises Standard Chartered’s commitment to creating an inclusive environment for women to thrive as innovators and leaders.
Post the mentoring session, the hackathon competition began and two girl teams from Accra High School and Labone Secondary School were tasked to develop creative solutions for managing “pocket money” digitally.
Labone Senior High School’s teams proposed mobile apps called Spend Le$$ and Digital Susu Box (DBS), while Accra High School’s teams presented The Tracking System app and Ingenious Solar Automated Money Box.
After evaluation from the judges, Labone Senior High School was declared the winner of the hackathon due to the feasibility, visual outlook, innovation and delivery of their presentation. To crown their performance, Labone Secondary School was rewarded with a 43-inch Smart TV for the school’s ICT laboratory.
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science empowers and inspires the next generation of women to unleash their potential as future leaders in STEM.
By making science education engaging, fun and relevant through problem-solving, while also ensuring girls feel supported, Standard Chartered’s hackathon is paving the way for Ghana’s next generation of women in STEM.
