What happens when a girl gets to ask a woman engineer how she got started? What might she discover when she steps beyond the classroom into a space where she can experiment, make mistakes, and try again?
A conversation can make a career feel within reach. A hands-on challenge can uncover an interest she never knew she had. And the freedom to get something wrong can give her the confidence to keep going.
On Friday, November 6, Play Like a Girl’s Girls Rock STEM+ Summit will bring those opportunities to life, transforming the classrooms and hallways of a Nashville public school into a festival of future possibilities.
At the heart of the experience is a simple idea: girls deserve opportunities to discover what interests them, try something unfamiliar, and meet women who can show them where it might lead.
Why these opportunities matter
Women contribute to every area of STEM, but representation remains uneven.
A 2021 Pew Research Center analysis found that women held half of STEM jobs overall, driven largely by their representation in health-related occupations. In engineering and computing, their shares were just 15% and 25%, respectively.
Those numbers raise a practical question: How do we give more girls the opportunity to explore these fields and see a place for themselves in them?
At Play Like a Girl, we start by making exploration accessible, hands-on, and personal.
A girl can ask an engineer how she got started. Work through a challenge alongside a mentor. Discover how an interest in sports, art, health, or technology connects to a career she had never considered.
These are opportunities to build confidence through participation and connection.
Confidence. Connection. Career readiness.
Play Like a Girl brings together sport, mentoring, and STEM to help girls build skills and explore their possibilities.
Through sport, girls practice teamwork, leadership, and persistence. Through mentoring, they connect with women who share their experiences and offer encouragement. Through hands-on STEM, they experiment, solve problems, and put their ideas into action.
Our programs are free to participants because a family’s ability to pay should never determine a girl’s opportunity to explore.
The Girls Rock STEM+ Summit brings that mission to life.
A day to ask, try, build, and discover
Throughout the Summit, girls will connect with professionals from Nashville companies and community organizations, explore career pathways, and take part in interactive experiences that bring STEM into focus.
Get inspired. At the Inspiration Stage, girls will hear women share the decisions, challenges, and opportunities that shaped their careers. They will have space to ask questions and discover that there are many ways to build a future in STEM.
Get hands-on. Across the Summit, girls will tackle challenges, test ideas, and explore how STEM works beyond the classroom. Each experience will connect an activity they can try with the people, skills, and careers behind it.
Make connections. Conversations with mentors and industry professionals will give girls opportunities to ask what the work is really like, what skills matter, and how to take a first step.
The goal is to help girls leave with more questions worth asking, more careers worth exploring, and more confidence to keep going.
Help open the next door
One day can introduce a possibility. Continued access, encouragement, and connection help girls pursue it.
There is a role for you in that work:
- STEM professionals: Share your story, mentor in a school club, or help lead a hands-on experience. Explore volunteer opportunities.
- Companies and community organizations: Open your workplace or bring your team’s expertise to an interactive STEM experience. Connect with us about partnering.
- Educators and families: Help girls discover opportunities to participate in Play Like a Girl’s free programs. Learn more.
- Funders and donors: Help make mentoring, hands-on learning, and career exploration accessible to more girls. Support the work.
Help a girl meet someone, try something, and discover a future she wants to pursue.
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