Lagos, Nigeria – 7th August, 2017:
The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre – W.TEC recently held its 10th Girls Technology Camp from July 23 – August 5 in Lagos, Nigeria. The camp concluded with a graduation ceremony on Saturday, August 5 2017.
The W.TEC Girls Technology Camp is a residential technology education and mentoring programme designed to inspire girls in JSS 2 to SSS 2 in secondary schools (ages 11 – 17) to become more confident in creating digital content and developing technology.
The theme of this year’s camp is ‘’Girls Build Tech’’ as the theme implies, the focus of the camp this year is for our girls to build with ICT, taking it a step further from applications designing to building.
For the two weeks duration of the camp, 40 girls participated in technology workshops on 3D Animation Programming using SketchUp, Computer Games designing using Greenfoot, Robotics Building and Programming with LEGO, Basics of Electronic and Circuits (Programmable Integrated Circuits), 3D-Design and Printing, , Virtual Reality Experience and Numerous Extra – curricular Activities.
The girls also participated in career talk sessions, team-building exercises and excursions. They learnt how to create ideas and develop them into money-making ventures; as seasoned financial gurus from Access Bank took the girls on Financial Literacy in the simplest form.The long-term goal of the camp is to increase the numbers of Nigerian women and girls using and creating technology productively for learning, professional and leadership activities.
The sponsors of this year’s camp are Google.org, Nokia UK via Global Giving and numerous kind individuals, while the supporters of the camp included Swift Networks Ltd, GE (General Electric), Access Bank, Native Smart, Afre.lib, Oracle and Laureates College. Also our media supporters for publicity were: Bella Naija and TW Magazine.
Swift Networks provided free, high-speed internet services for the duration of the camp while Laureates College supported the camp by donating the venue.
The camp participants for exrcusion were hosted at GE for a session in 2D designing using Greenfoot, Career Talks and a tour of G.E Garague (G.E’s innovative incubation Centre). During the 2D designing session, using Greenfoot they designed games in a hackathon after which, winners were given prizes.
The camp participants were also privileged to visit Accelerate Tv, a Television Station inspired by Access Bank. At the TV station, the girls wrote and acted a script which was recorded at the studio.
On successful completion of the camp, the girls will be invited to join W.TEC’s Technology Alumnae Group, where they will be kept up to date with future W.TEC workshops to build-up their technology skills from the camp and also get to network with other camp alumnae from 2008 ‘till present.
PRIZES
Prizes were given out to distinguished participants of the camp at the camp’s graduation ceremony held on Saturday August 5th 2017. Prizes were given to participants for both group efforts and individual projects, in categories representing, each Technology session held in the camp; (Designing & Building of Integrated circuits, 3D Animation (Using Sketch Up), Blogging, 2D Animation (Using GreenFoot) and Robotics.
In addition, character awards were another set of awards given out to participants during the graduation ceremony. They were awards, given out to participants who distinguished themselves with the following desirable, consistent personal attitudes exhibited in relating with their fellow participants: Purposefulness, Capability, Blossoming, Humorous, Congeniality, Courage, Leadership and Prim & Proper.
Overall Winner’s Prize – Miss W.TEC: Best Overall (Academics + Team Work + Behaviour)
The Overall Winner’s Prize, went to Miss Benita Clement for her steadfastness throughout the camp.
The Miss W.TEC 2017 prize, comes with a high profile technological mentorship at G.E (General Electric) Lagos Office.
About W.TEC
The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is a Nigerian non-governmental organization working to encourage Nigerian girls and women to use information and communication technology (ICT) to empower themselves socially and economically. This is done through technology literacy training, technology-based projects, mentoring, work placement and research. W.TEC works in partnership with local and international NGOs, educational and research organizations.
To find out more about the camp, visit www.wtec.org.ng, email info@wtec.org.ng or call +234.809.698.7541, +234.818.870.9251, +234.809.781.4542.
Contact – Communications Department:
Adeyemi Odutola, Communications Officer, yemi@wtec.org.ng, +234.809.698.7541, +234.818.870.9251, +234.809.781.4542
