Building Omaha’s Future Leaders
June 2020
STEM Professional You Should Know
Making a Digital Difference: Pincurl Girls’ Texts Send Teen Girls Right Message
Jen Landis inspires hundreds of girls daily across the country through her text messages to them. Landis, a graphic designer, entrepreneur and motivational speaker in Lincoln, Neb., is the founder of Pincurl Girls, a motivational message company that utilizes STEM to provide encouragement to girls of all ages. One of the key areas of her business is utilizing digital media platforms to distribute motivational text messages that she personally writes each day. Landis believes that girls today are surrounded by too many negative and defeating voices and images. Her perspective is shaped by personal experience and by her role as a mother to a daughter now entering the uncertainty of adolescence. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 1 in 5 adolescents is confronted with a mental health challenge like anxiety or depression. Landis says digital therapy is a new frontier of health innovation, as Pew Research shows 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, with 45% saying they are almost constantly online. That is why encouragement through her daily text messages is resonating with girls across the country.
Landis loves to inspire others by sharing her journey of self-doubt to self-champion! In grad school, she battled issues of self-worth. To cope, she channeled her “inner child” through drawing a little girl that resembled her when she was young. These drawings helped her hear what her inner child was trying to tell her: “I am worth it. I can do this.” Landis later transformed this self-empowering art into the initiative Pincurl Girls to inspire others by sharing positivity with those who might need it. For more information, visit pincurlgirls.com or follow @pincurlgirls on Facebook and Instagram.
Professional Development Committee
Critical Skills Statement
Over the past 1 ½ years, the PD Committee hosted numerous Community Conversations
“Bridging the Gap in the STEM Workforce: Business + industry + Education”
The Omaha community came together with a common goal to bridge the gap between workforce and education. With 140 representatives spanning 60 different organizations, working together to identify critical skills for 21st Century jobs. They acknowledged the importance of multiple frameworks for critical skills, such as NE Standards for Career Readiness. Hosted at Gallup, these events help develop communication pathways, connections, and collaboration among all sectors of our community.
Based on the information gathered, the PD Committee developed a Critical Skills statement.
Visit HERE to view the statement
Virtual Roundtable Series
As we navigate the challenges and opportunities in this new culture, we draw on the knowledge of our diverse network of thought leaders and experts to understand the implications to our work, education, and future workforce. Please join us for this series of virtual Roundtable Discussions to share our experiences and lessons learned among a diverse set of stakeholders.
Here is a link to the Roundtable Invite!
Or you can just go register HERE
CodeCrush Summit
This event is for both adults and high school students:
CodeCrush is celebrating the amazing community that supports diversity in IT.
Whether you’re a past applicant or participant of CodeCrush, an educator, a high schooler interested in IT, or a business or individual supporting these efforts – they’d love to see you there!
Students must obtain parental/guardian consent for participation. They welcome all students with an interest in IT. Register: HERE
Post-July 4th clean!
After the fireworks are done, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, Keep Omaha Beautiful and Diventures ask for your help in keeping our oceans and water-ways free of debris. Starting Sunday, July 5th grab your friends, families, and neighbors and clean-up the paper and plastics from fireworks and festivities left behind.
Using the hashtag #StarSpangledCleanup, share photos/videos of yourselves in action with the Zoo on social media. We urge you to count the pieces of trash you pick up so we can track your impact on our environment! Trash data sheets are available at www.OmahaZoo.com/Action.
Plastics and paper from fireworks find their way to rivers and streams and ultimately to the ocean so you make a difference this Independence Day.
Join us Sunday, July 5th thru Saturday, July 11th and collect trash and Save our Oceans!
Reference our Staying at Home Resources: Check out all the information on ways to make staying at home an opportunity to learn and grow by clicking on the image above or this link!
Just a reminder that there will not be a July Newsletter
Take care, be safe, and see you in August!
We want you to be a part of the conversation about how to find solutions for addressing the shortfall of STEM professionals in the Omaha community. To collaborate with innovators, educators, researchers and leaders of tomorrow, join the Omaha STEM Ecosystem today at https://omahastem.com/get-involved/.
