NASA Helps Girls in New Orleans Imagine a Future in STEM

On November 23rd, 2022, the NASA ASTRO CAMP® Community Partners (ACCP) team participated in the New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA) Girls Day Out. This event, hosted by the Atlantic Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC), was designed to inspire and empower middle school girls to pursue careers in STEM fields that are traditionally dominated by men.

The day began with the showing of the "We Go as the Artemis Generation" video, which introduced the 30 girls in attendance to the Artemis I mission launched by NASA the week before the event. After the video, the girls were given the opportunity to hear from women currently leading military commands, working in criminal investigations, flying helicopters, and engineering the future of naval war-fighting technology, which showcased for the girls how highly valued women are working in STEM fields as leaders and successful STEM professionals. After several speakers described the paths they took to reach their current stations in life, the girls engaged in hands-on activities such as building robots, investigating imagery, creating their own NASA mission patches, and competing in a NASA ACCP model Space Launch System rocket launch challenge – activities that inspired these young minds to imagine themselves as leaders and STEM professionals of the future.

NASA's ASTRO CAMP® Community Partners program is supported by NASA and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. The ACCP team collaborates with NIWC and other community programs to bring NASA Science Activation activities to communities in fun and engaging ways, inspiring youth (with a focus on reaching underserved and under-represented groups) by sharing NASA Science. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learners