STEM Talent Girl is a PPG-supported program by ASTI TALENT AND TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION. The ASTI foundation is a nonprofit organization that drives the educational program STEM Talent Girl, which aims to develop talent, and inspire and empower young girls from Spain to pursue STEM careers.
This rewarding program, supported by our community engagement grant, unites girls, aged between 14 and 17, with top professional women working in these fields. In addition to motivating masterclasses and workshops, the mentoring part of the program also gives the girls the chance of job-shadowing their mentors in the workplace.
From PPG, colleagues from our sites in Camarma and Valladolid stepped up and became mentors for the young STEM talents. They held two inspirational workshops on both sites dedicated to the students. Our women mentors also shared their career experiences and showed them around the site premises.
Giving a Guiding Hand
Only the best can truly inspire, and that is why we are #PPGProud to tell you about two of the 24 brightest stars from PPG Spain involved in mentoring the girls and participating in the workshops. They are Elena Rebollar González, supply chain planner and replenisher at the Valladolid site, and Rosa Maria Rodriguez Izquierdo, quality control technician at the Camarma site.
“An Opportunity I would like to Have Had When I Was Their Age”
Rosa introduced the young girls to the lab at our Camarma site where she works on the quality control of products for Seat, VW, Mercedes and Ford. What her young mentees learned was that at the heart of the work Rosa delivers are quality and customer satisfaction. These are important lessons and the girls were thrilled to be able to see and learn them first hand.
During the workshop, Elena told the girls about her daily routine of planning and scheduling production at our Valladolid site. In her role, interacting with people both inside and outside the organization makes communication a key skill. So, when she found the girls had a natural ability to speak in public as well as manage new technologies, she was pleasantly surprised.
The Pioneers of the Future
For Rosa and Elena, they were delighted to observe how even potentially simple activities made a big impression on the girls when they saw them for the first time.
By giving young girls the chance to see what a career in science brings, we can help inspire them to become the next generation of great female pioneers. As Rosa and Elena both agree, it is an opportunity they wish they could have taken too when they were the girls’ age.