Sitting in a Starbucks in downtown Halifax listening to Tamara Franz-Odendaal talk, all I could think was I wish my daughter could be here to hear this! Like me, Tamara is the mother of a nine year old daughter, and she is passionate about raising girls to be strong, self sufficient, and financially independant.
I flew to Halifax to meet Tamara, one of the deserving winners of Dove Unstoppable Moms for Unstoppable Girls contest, to get to know her a little better. Her winning submission was short and to the point—she creates workshops to mentor girls to guide them into science-based careers, to ultimately make them unstoppable.
Tamara walks the talk. Her day job is Biology Professor and Researcher at Mount St. Vincent University where she sees substantially fewer girls in her classes than boys. So she decided to do something about it. She connected with the National Science and Engineering Council in Canada and become the Atlantic Canada representative. With their help, Tamara organizes full day interactive workshops filled with hands on activities for girls in grades 7 - 9 to dispell the stodgy image of the modern day scientist.
Here's a video of Tamara explaining firsthand what she "does."
She explains how girls are drawn to careers that are interactive, nurturing, and helpful. The stereotype of antiseptic white lab coats and solitary working cubicles associated with science are a turn off for girls. For Tamara, a career in the sciences is anything but isolated and staid. It's incredibly collaborative and is based on one's ability to problem solve—skills most girls can rock!
"I love my job," she tells me. "I can't imagine not knowing about science. It's so important to develop those critical thinking skills. How do you interpret information and find the relevant facts? Show me the evidence."
Tamara's strategy was to design workshops filled with hands on, collaborative activities to highlight careers like engineering, research, and technology—careers girls tend to shy away from. Getting girls to engineer a building with spaghetti and marshmallows, or a bridge-building exercise using newspaper, are some of the activities which gets the kids excited. When she sees girls getting into it, she explains the connection of how what they are doing is synthesis of science, technology, and the arts.
The next part of the day-long workshop works much like speed dating, where the girls get ten minutes face time with female scientists from a variety of fields, so they can see firsthand that the button-down white lab coat stereotype is a thing of the past.
Tamara is proud of the effect she's having on teen girls—parents often contact her six months post-workshop to let her know their daughters are still talking about what they learned that day. But the mentoring needs to continue after the workshop. The high school curriculum needs to change according the Tamara, making science-based classes less academic and more hands-on to reflect the skill-sets and exciting opportunities available in the fields of medicine, architecture, and technology.
Winning the Dove Unstoppable Moms for Unstoppable Girls contest comes with a cash prize of $2,500 for Tamara. She plans to take her daughter to visit her cousins in the US, who all happen to work in the sciences (Environmental, Civil and Chemical Engineering). "What a great environment for her to be surrounded in," she says with a smile.
The other part of the prize is a $2,500 endowment for a charity of Tamara's choice. The lucky recipient is the National Eating Disorder Information Center (NEDIC)—which Tamara chose because it empowers girls and helps them recognize the stereotypes of beauty perpetuated by the media.
Like me, Tamara is ultimately concerned about teaching girls to be empowered and financially independant. "I don't want girls to be dependant on their husbands' income. No one can take your education away from you."
Halifax girls are lucky to have Tamara and her workshops. And I'm lucky to have met her. I just wish she could come to Toronto to put on her workshops. I'd send my daughter for sure.
This is proudly sponsored by our friends at Dove®
www.dove.ca
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