As some of you know part of what we look for as we plan our travels is to be inspired by creative people and places. Today's tour of VentureLab was one of the highlights of our travels through San Antonio as part of our Living Learning Mobile Journey. When I discovered VentureLab, one of the things that caught my attention right away was the 60% female participation statistic on the front page of their web site.
we're making a real difference
724 students, 60% female participation,
Who are these people that are having such great results getting young women involved in high tech ventures? I immediately started clicking around their website and discovered that not only are 60% of their student participants female, but over 60% of their team are women -- SMART women!
And one of these women is their founder, Cristal Glangchai, PhD in BioMedical Engineering.
Cristal is a scientist, professor, entrepreneur , and mother of two girls who is passionate about teaching girls to become leaders in technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Spend two minutes with Cristal in this short video and you'll see for yourself how the lack of women in her university program, lack of women CEOs, lack of women investors, all fueled Cristal's desire to get more women involved in the innovation landscape. And one of the ways she is doing that is through VentureLab ~ an innovation academy that focuses on hands on learning and teaching youth about entrepreneurship.
But it's not just Cristal's passion for raising the number of females who play a role in shaping the world around us that is driving the success you see at VentureLab; it is the passion of a whole team and their belief in a shared vision.
Click on the WHO ARE WE Link and listen to children, parents, community members, and other stakeholders join Cristal (cofounder) and Director of Programs, Nick Honegger. passionately describe the shared vision of VentureLab. As Dirk Elemdorf cofounder of Rackspace, describes "this whole industry has been dominated by dudes who look exactly like me~ young white dudes." VentureLab is filled with a team of supporters who are passionate in making changes in an industry that currently "cuts off women and people of color". They understands that
"diversity of view gives us diversity of solution by keeping people not otherwise exposed to this stuff in the game we get a better shot of having them actually take these roles that we need to fill our future"
The shared mission of the team of VentureLab came through loud and clear as Program Director Director of Programs, Nick Honegger, described what happens at Venture Lab during our tour of the space today.
Start YOUNG!
VentureLab wants to start with kids as young as 5 years old!
EVERY student should EXPERIENCE ENTREPRENEURSHIP!
Using our ESTEAM framework, we provide experiential learning in Entrepreneurship,Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics, teaching students the key mindsets of entrepreneurial thinking, design thinking, creativity, and we provide hands on instruction in technology. [VentureLab Website]
Let's Utilize our FULL WORKFORCE!
Getting more women to participate in the STEM fields and take on entrepreneurial roles is not just about achieving gender equality; our entire country will benefit from this progress and development. To realize our full competitive and technological leadership as a nation, young women must be encouraged to achieve their full potential and receive more representation within ESTEAM-related fields. We want to ensure that our full workforce is being utilized, and that is why we strive to achieve gender parity within all of our programs. [VentureLab Website]
Thank you, Hetali Lodaya and Nick Honegger for taking time out of your day to show us around VentureLab today and fill us with inspiration that the world is filled with creative people doing amazing things.
Cross posted by Lucie at
