One of my favorite things to do over the holidays is sit down with my family, drinking a cup of hot cocoa, and flipping through old photo books together.
A while ago as we were doing just that we came across this photo of my grandmother. I and one of my younger sisters taken around 15 years ago now. My grandmother grew up in a small village in India at a time more access to education was extremely limited especially for young girls.
She was told to stop going to school in fourth grade and only after pleading and begging was she allowed to stay in school for just one more year at the age of 19 my grandmother was married. And at the age of 25, she was raising three kids because my grandmother never had the chance to complete her education.
She made sure that my mom did and so at the age of 19 my mom had the choice between education and marriage, she was able to choose to get a bachelor's degree in mathematics and then go on to get a masters degree in computer science after which she was hired straight out of college and moved to America with my dad me and my two younger sisters to this day whenever I call my grandparents they never fail to remind me Ann remember to study hard the most valuable thing anyone can own is knowledge to me personally there is no other more inspirational example of progress than the story of my parents and grandparents. And hearing it has made me all the more aware of how influential education is.
The process of change access to education changes lives that's why in order to give everyone the best chance of success we need to make education as easily accessible as possible and we need to make sure that kids have access to the right type of education there's no way to predict what the future will hold and so the value in schooling doesn't lie in the facts that we learn to memorize but rather the critical thinking skills that will allow us to solve a variety of problems, for example, some of the jobs that exist today didn't exist 30 years ago and some of the jobs that will exist.
In 30 years may not even be imaginable right now so how do we prepare students to enter industries that don't even exist yet in order to do that we need to teach kids how to learn and not just what to learn teaching kids how to ask questions and think critically is far more important than ever before that way they'll be prepared to face the constant changes and challenges of the future in order to do that we need to show kids how the skills that they're learning in school can be applied to the things that happen around them in their day to day lives.
Every subject is important whether it's literature chemistry or calculus but the reason that students sometimes get frustrated or start to feel that these subjects are useless is that they're rarely given the chance to apply them.
John Dewey often regarded as the father of education once stated, "We only think when confronted with a problem." That's why students need to be given the chance to apply their skills before they can feel satisfied with their knowledge and studies have shown over and over again that students do better when they get the chance to develop an emotional connection to the subject that they're learning.
Emotion drives attention and attention drives learning by showing students the real-world applications of what they're learning in the classroom, they're more likely to stay engage and develop a deeper long-term understanding.
But the problem is schools often lack the funding the time or the teachers to provide these opportunities for students, that's why programs like first exist.
First Robotics students get the chance to apply the skills that they learn in and out of the classroom by building robots to compete in fun and exciting challenges there's nothing more engaging than that moment where after hours and hours of hard work you finally get to see your robot come to life or That moment when your whole team is jumping up and down cheering as your Alliance scores the winning points of the final match first is divided into multiple categories so that students of all ages can get hands-on experience with technology and each year a different challenge is released keeping students engaged.
As they learn about everything from wiring and CAD to CNC milling and even computer vision but it's not just technical skills that you learn through this program you also get the chance to learn about skills like business leadership and teamwork.
I've been involved in first for 10 years now and it has helped shaped me not only as an engineer but as a person getting the chance to apply my skills have given me confidence in my abilities and it's also helped me find my passions and figure out what I want to do in the future I wanted to give other students access to these same opportunities that's why I co-founded a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring girls to pursue opportunities in science technology engineering and math called the stem.
For girls at the stem for girls, we work to present science and technology in fun and exciting ways by partnering with local organizations were able to host workshops for kids in the US as well as provide funding and mentoring for a variety of stem programs that way more students can start learning about science and technology from a young age.
But this sort of hands-on learning opportunity doesn't have to be limb two technical fields there are hundreds of programs out there that are working to give students a chance to get hands-on learning in any field imaginable whether it's business medicine or fashion there is a nonprofit organization out there that's trying to give students a chance to apply their skills outside of the classroom I'd highly encourage each and every one of you to reach out to volunteer mentor students are always in need of people with expertise to give them the best guidance they can get in any field by sharing your skillset and the unique perspective you can open their minds to all the opportunities that are out there and change their lives and if there's one thing that I've learned from the stem for girls it's that learning is a two-way street.
You often gain just as much if not more when you're teaching others whether it's by volunteering and educational competitions presenting in schools or helping out at science fairs everyone can do their part in showing the next generation how to think critically and open-mindedly even the smallest experience can be absolutely life-changing all it takes is a little spark to light a new path in someone's life for example my mom's decision to become a software engineer happened in tenth grade at that time the school that she was attending was small and definitely not wealthy enough to afford its own computer especially when computers were relatively new however there was a government subsidy program that brought a computer to their classroom for just one month it wasn't anything like the fancy Mac books or Dells that we have now just a large bulky UNIX server hooked up to a couple of monitors here and there for students to use during the one month that it was at her school.
The school offered an introductory class and she rushed to sign up that's where she learned the basics as in the computer language basic beginners all-purpose symbolic instruction code she told me that they never learned anything more than simple addition and subtraction but that was enough to get her hook on computers for life is my mom has had that opportunity to work with computers in tenth grade.
She may have never become a software engineer that's why it's of utmost importance that we all work to give every child no matter their race gender or wealth access hands-on learning opportunities in a variety of fields the more that they can experience the more that they can understand so what I want to ask you today is what will you do to give more kids access to a challenging and inspiring education it's not about changing the whole world but by showing kids all opportunities that are out there and letting them learn by trying new things you can change their world.
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