GenIT founder Sergey Tokarev tells about the winners of the third STEM is FEM module

10th grade student Iryna Nataluha from Sumy has won the third educational module of the charity project STEM is FEM. In March, the girl is going to Rome to attend a Yale University conference on Global Citizenship. This was reported by GenIT founder and initiator of the STEM is FEM project Sergey Tokarev.

‘The third STEM is FEM module was dedicated to energy and ecology. In total, we received more than 150 requests from girls to participate in the contest. The 28 high school girls who best dealt with the online test on the project website eventually arrived to the second part of the module in Kyiv,’ – says Tokarev. ‘To win the grand prize, the girls had to present their own action strategy for environmental and energy sectors that would help Ukraine adapt to global changes by 2050.’

The GenIT founder says that, in her concept, Iryna Nataluha emphasized three activities that were barely covered by other participants—she stressed the importance of supporting nuclear power, the problem of overpopulation, and the need to reconsider every human action or habit from an environmental perspective, such as environmental and economical impact of such a trivial thing as a cemetery. Iryna’s performance let the girl win the module and receive the opportunity to participate in the Yale International Alliance Conference on Global Citizenship in Rome.

Two more participants—Margaryta Meleshkova from Mariupol and Maria Kalinichenko from Dnipro—shared the second place. They have received an online course “Ecology of ecosystems” on the international educational platform Udemy. This is a course that explains basic environmental concepts with the help of 3D animation. At the end of the course, the girls will receive certificates.

Apart from the contest part, participants had the opportunity to listen to motivating speakers. Among them were the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Kyiv Anka Feldhuzen, UNICEF Deputy Representative in Ukraine Laura Bill, Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Anna Novosad, and Deputy Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine Iryna Stavchuk. The girls also talked to women working in the industry and visited Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute UHMI and the control unit of the Kyiv electrical grid.

STEM is FEM is an educational charity initiative aimed at promoting the technological sciences among girls. The project focuses on popularizing STEM specialties: science, technology, engineering and mathematics among Ukrainian high school girls. Today, there are far fewer women in these fields than men.