My name is Nana Kiria. I am seventeen years old, from Georgia, and a participant in the 2018 WiSci Georgia Girls STEAM Camp. I’m excited to tell you my story, my personal experience of WiSci!
As you know, Georgia is developing country, and there are many stereotypes about girls and what they can achieve. There are many obstacles for girls to reach their goals, especially when it comes to their rights and fight for equality. I am one of these girls and I am changing my life.
When I heard about the WiSci Girls STEAM Camp, I thought that it was my chance. I thought it was the project I needed in my life. So, I applied and tried my best, and was so excited to be accepted to camp. It was more than just camp; it was my first step in life as an independent, confident, warrior woman.
At camp, I felt huge support from girls from all around the world. The whole staff was concentrated on us, helping to build our knowledge and our confidence. I liked the way they taught us, but I loved the most their attitude. They believed in us and this fact was encouraging us. We were encouraged to be as open as possible, and it was easy to introduce our real selves. We were speaking with no fears of judgment at all; we were sharing our own stories and we were supporting each other as real sisters.
These two weeks of WiSci Camp were full of new things for me. I had never done computer engineering before. I had never worked with robots or drones. I had never tried programming or coding before this camp, so I found new skills in my personal abilities. The teachers from Google, Microsoft, ASM (American Society of Microbiology), and Intel were truly amazing! They were just incredibly cool, and of course, so generous to us. Honestly, I want to thank all these people for their effort and for their work helping to us to develop ourselves. I think they reached their goal, each of the 100 girl campers grew up as a person and as a woman!
The WiSci camp was not only school, there were so many fun activities, too. We had adorable culture nights with their incredible sharing. Each country introduced their own culture, dances, songs, clothes, presents, foods (my favorite!). Each night, they taught us their cultural dances and we were dancing together.
All 100 campers from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the USA pose in front of the European School in Tbilisi.
We had parties too! We had a talent show and really exciting excursions. The diversity of this camp provided so much to us. As you know, in camp there were girls from Georgia, USA, Azerbaijan and Armenia, our lifestyles were kind of different but it was not an obstacle for building friendships. We were sharing information about our society, about our everyday lives, and we found out some similarities between our countries, too. We were different girls united for one goal – to “GIRL UP.” Now I have friends from around the world, I have collaborators from different countries for my future. I believe our generation will do everything for an equal and fair environment for everyone! We will work so hard, for our bright future.
Finally, I want to thank all people who made this camp real, you guys make huge investment in our futures! I’m really proud of being a #WiSciGirl! We are girls of the future! We changed our lives, so we can change the world! We are together, and together we can do anything. You see a girl, we see the future!
