For those who do not know me, I work on staff with IEEE supporting the volunteers in the US, primarily in Regions 3, 5 & 6. Some of you may know my colleague Adrienne Hahn who supports Region 1. In our roles, we try and help answer your questions, but also from time to time, we come across opportunities that may be of interest to our constituents, and this happens to be one of those cases.

A close friend of mine recently made me aware of a Girl Scout troop in New York that is made of homeless girls who range in age from 5-15. My understanding is they have a primary focus on STEM education, and it got me thinking – Is there a way IEEE can help?

I guess my first question would be if any of you aware of this troop and currently working with them? If so PLEASE contact Adrienne and I as we’d like to learn more and provide support.

If not, This could be an EXCELLENT way to give back to the community & help kids in need. The opportunities are endless.

• Form joint projects between Section/Student branch/Affinity Group (WIE, YP).
• Connect them to IEEE resources like:
  • TryEngineering.org
  • Our Lesson plans (http://tryengineering.org/lesson-plans)
  • IEEE EPICS (http://epics.ieee.org/)

I found a series of articles that speak about the troop and offer more information. In the first article, it mentions troops in other areas and I plan to connect with them as well.

• https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/16/nyregion/living-by-the-girl-scout-law-even-without-a-home.amp.html
• https://www.girlscoutsnyc.org/whatgirlsdo/Girl-Scouts-in-NYC-Shelters
• http://www.npr.org/2017/07/26/538551816/a-nyc-scout-troop-provides-homeless-girls-a-place-of-their-own
• https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/12/nyregion/girl-scouts-homeless.html