NAF Partner Event Recap: Lenovo Hosts ‘Girls Belong in Tech’

NAF staff were proud to be on the ground last month for Lenovo’s ‘Girl Belong in Tech’ event, at its headquarters in the North Carolina Research Triangle Park region. Our long-standing partner hosted this momentous and impactful day, for high school girls and nonbinary students. Participants had the unique opportunity to learn more about tech careers; network with female leaders; participate in small group workshops; tour technology labs; and win raffle prizes!

At the end of the Lenovo ‘Girls Belong in Tech’ event, Pallavi M., a former Lenovo high school summer intern, and her internship supervisor, Scott Harsany, Executive Director in Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group, took a moment to soak it all in. It’s hard not to reflect on how one summer internship led to a day that brought over 150 students together in one place to learn how they can be the future of the tech industry!

The road to this events started in 2021 when, among the many internships Lenovo offered, one was specifically for a coordinator position for what was then known as “Lenovo Virtual Girls Technology Camp.” Kyrah T., of Hillside High School Business & Finance Academy (Durham, NC), earned the internship and a chance to help coordinate a virtual event intended to encourage high school girls to learn more and consider careers in STEM. Kyrah and Harsany saw a huge opportunity with this event, especially at a time when many students could not get together in person due to COVID-19.

The following summer, Harsany asked for two interns to help coordinate the second virtual camp event and Pallavi M. (Enloe High School, Raleigh, NC) and Ally Z. (Cox Mill High School, Concord, NC) were chosen for the program and ran with it. The event evolved into an initiative dubbed Girls Belong in Technology. Pallavi and Ally developed a robust website and Instagram account, filled with factoids and advice based on interviews they did with Lenovo employees all over the world. For the summer virtual camp, they recruited speakers from NAF and Lenovo and created fun exercises for the nearly 200 middle school and high school girls who were invited to attend.

The passion Ally and Pallavi had for the project inspired Lenovo to think about an in-person event, where they could have speakers and several workshops take place at the Lenovo headquarters. Fast forward to February 17, 2023, and their vision came to life!

The event was everything Pallavi, Ally, and Scott hoped it would be – young girls being in spaces where they saw people like them, excelling in their field and opening their eyes to what the tech world really is – and what it can be with their support. 

“Before this event, I was really interested in biology but after coming here and learning more about the different facets of technology that exists, I learned that I can be interested in multiple areas and combine my interests of science and technology into biomed engineering or biomedical technology. This event was a great experience for me to learn more about what I’m interested in and what’s out there,” said Aanandi T., of Cox Mill High School AOIT.

The day also was a great way for the students to envision what working at a technology leader like Lenovo, would be like. Aanandi’s Cox Mill classmate, Amarjae G., stated, “This [event] has opened my eyes to what technology really is outside of just offices and computers, as it’s also a social environment and what it means to [the employees] individually and what it means for the community.”

Lenovo and NAF hope that this initiative means many more events like this to come and a future where all students not only feel a sense of belonging in the technology field but are actively changing it for the better.

For more, visit: https://girlsbelongintech.com/