Róisín Hiney & Ruth Duffy of Bray Senior Branch made this super video using the Sangam song, ‘When We Shine’:
“The world needs love and care and joy
For every girl and for every boy
Be kind, considerate, respectful and true
Because what goes around comes around right back to you”
We hope lots of you will be doing the IGGNITE Challenge Badge!
The following are the requirements for each Branch to earn the IGGNITE Camp Challenge Badge:
‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ This can be, perhaps, the most limiting question you can ask a child.
Why? According to the World Economic Forum, 65% of children entering primary school education today will be in jobs that don’t even exist yet! The rate of development in the fields of Engineering, Computer Sciences and Information Systems at the moment is amazing – even where I’m from in Cork, the city is changing all around me. The single largest research building in the European Union was opened just a few months back in University College Cork and it is dedicated purely to the computational and mathematical sciences.
The future work life of our current Ladybirds, Brownies and Guides is largely unwritten and, as Leaders and Senior Branchers, we can all do our bit in our own little way as volunteers to help them be ready for it. Looking back on how Guiding started up in the first place – with the intention of giving girls practical and outdoor skills and confidence to contribute their all to society, it does seem a bit absurd to be talking about technology but the closer you look, the more relevant it seems.When I was in primary school, I was absolutely convinced I wanted to be a teacher and nothing else! All the other kids around me had similarly simple dreams, of being a nurse or a vet or a famous actress. I’m even struggling to think of more of the options we chose because they were pretty limited. That was fine for a bunch of primary school students filling in a bunch of questionnaires but the pattern continued into secondary school and, more troublingly, as the CAO application deadline approached. During one particular Irish class every student either wanted to be a nurse or a teacher – and when my turn came round to speak up as a hopeful Energy Engineering applicant, there was a bit of a silence – I mean, Engineering? What’s that?I will always stand firm in the belief that ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’ and the field of technology suffers hugely from this inconvenient truth. As a child I wanted to be a primary school teacher because day-in-day-out I headed into school and saw the teacher leading the class and doing a great job. I looked up to her and, at that age, I had a small understanding of what the job entailed. I can assure you I have no childhood memories of coloring in a picture of an engineer, but I was always taught how to spell ‘nurse’.
Currently, the proportion of jobs in telecommunications, scientific research and development and computer programming that are held by women stands at less than 30%. Ironically, the courses that are the foundations for these have some of the most attainable CAO points (Engineering in CIT was 410 in 2015) while primary school teaching and medicine continues to be unreasonably high. To further add insult to injury, these jobs are amongst the best paid in the country. Soon the gender pay gap, in Ireland anyway, will not be stemming from society’s bias against women, but more so from women’s uncertainty and lack of confidence in pursuing tech and engineering careers.
Even as a college student, I am noticing the great benefits of following the path of an Engineer – faculty loans are offered to Engineering undergrads at a lower interest rate, I am in receipt of an industry scholarship from Intel to help with college fees, and there are plenty of summer internships to go around for everyone. These little things make such a huge difference, and would not be accessible to people outside of the STEM fields.
What can we do to help solve this problem? Exposure! Has your unit ever visited an observatory? Would your unit like to call to a meeting of Coder-dojo? Would you like to do a show-and-tell session on the Guide or Brownies’ favourite invention? Could you get speakers in for your Senior Branchers?
I find these days I’m defining the Engineering mindset as, thinking about a more efficient way to get jobs done. That’s the job description in general really. Engineers learn about how things work and how to make everything run better – they solve problems. We frame engineers, computer scientists and IT leaders as nerds, or people who just love maths but trust me, there are plenty of engineering students, even in UCC, who struggle with maths just as much as anyone else – most mathematical problems can be solved with a computer anyway!
In reality, good Engineers are simply curious, like to complain about how things are run, and like to provide their own remedies for a particular problem – and I don’t know about you, but I sometimes find Guides to be particularly good Engineers at meetings!
In conclusion, I would like to mention why I chose Energy Engineering as my specified discipline. I never had any experience programming, didn’t do Engineering for my Leaving Cert, and did not study Applied Maths either. I simply asked myself the question – What’s the biggest issue facing our generation, and how can I help be a part of the solution? (I would recommend this as a solid starting point for anyone struggling with their career choice at the moment).
Sarah Cahill, a Trefoil Guild member living in Waterford, recently went to Slovakia to take part in a workshop organised by the International Scout and Guide Fellowship. Thirty-two people from 13 countries attended to discuss the challenge of recruitment. Sarah thoroughly enjoyed her first experience of international Guiding/Scouting and wrote the following about her experience:
It was an unexpected and wonderful opportunity to participate in the 7th Europe Region Workshop that took place in Smolenice, Slovakia (3 – 8 March 2017). I am still not sure how I got the chance to go on this adventure. A lot of credit has to go to my Fellowship contact in Ireland, Margery, who was very good about explaining as much as she could to me and being very persuasive.
IGG’s STEM initiatives featured in The Irish Independent’s 2020 Women In STEM supplement. IGG Communications Officer, Fiona Murdoch, describes how IGG is encouraging girls and young women to consider pursuing careers in STEM by introducing them to STEM in fun and creative ways and how this has been greatly boosted by our partnerships with Engineers Ireland, Aer Lingus, and Dublin City University’s STEM Education, Innovation and Global Studies department.
Three members of Centenary Guides – Breda, Isobel and Molly – and their Leader, Jillian van Turnhout, were interviewed on Near FM about their experience earning the Aviation badge and being awarded it mid-flight on an Aer Lingus flight to Heathrow. They even got to sit in the pilot’s seat and wear the captain’s hat! You can listen to a podcast of the interview here.
Mikeyla Arpac and Helen O’Reilly were interviewed on Near FM about their experience achieving the Explorer Belt in Belgium after hiking 180 kilometres and completing 12 projects while carrying all their camping and cooking gear while living on just €3.25 a day. You can hear the interview here.
Our STEM, Engineering and Aviation badges received good coverage, along with our partnership with Dublin City University and LearnIT Lego, in The Irish Independent’s Women in STEM supplement.
Our #PledgeAgainstPlastic garden at Bloom featured in The Sunday Independent‘s Bloom supplement, The Irish Independent online and The Irish Daily Mirror online.
The launch of our Europe badge during Europe Week 2019 featured in The Irish Examiner and The Irish Daily Mirror.
The Irish Times featured our Free Being Me programme in their Health and Family supplement. You can read it here.
Woman’s Way published a super feature about our first two Golden Sun awardees Aoife Leamy and Aisling Claffey.
Guides and Senior Branch members from Kildare, Lucan and Edenderry featured on Marty and Bernard’s Big Adventure with Outdoor Advisor Sylvia Richardson. Watch the episode here!
The Irish Examiner, Irish Daily Mirror and The Times – Ireland edition all featured the launch of our new Aviation badge with Aer Lingus. It also featured on The Irish Independent online, The Irish Times online and Image magazine online.
The Irish Examiner, Irish Sun and Irish Daily Mail all featured our new Climate Action badge, which we developed in partnership with Trócaire. You can see The Irish Examiner article here.
The Echo did a super two-page spread about our Golden Sun awardee Aisling Claffey from Carrigaline. You can read it here.
Our Free Being Me ambassador, Emer Foley, talked on Claire Byrne Live about the importance of taking value in what you can do rather than how you look and how Free Being Me encourages confidence in one’s inner beauty. Watch here (34 minutes into the programme).
A double-page spread about IGG based on an interview with Chief Commissioner Helen Concannon was published in Irish Country Magazine >>
Our Ambassadors, Kate and Annie Madden of FenuHealth, were featured in Women Mean Business. Read the article here.
The Irish Independent featured an article about how IGG prepares girls and young women for today’s world and encourages them to pursue STEM. Read the article here.
The Irish Examiner featured our new Engineering badges, which we developed in partnership with Engineers Ireland. Read the article here.
Irish Tech News also featured the launch of our Engineering badges. Read the article here.
Lucan Guide Leader Beth Moody and Dragon investor Alison Cowzer talked about our cookie programme on TV3’s Elaine Show. Watch the clip here.
The Ireland edition of The Times ran an article about IGG’s badges and programme. You can read the article here.
Our Cookie initiative featured in The Irish Times. Read the article here.
The National Guide Awards featured on TV3 news. Watch the clip here.
IGGNITE2017 Camp Chief Jenny Gannon was interviewed on Newstalk’s Global Village with two IGG girls from Howth, Emily and Ciara. You can hear a podcast of the interview here or you can read a transcript of the interview here.
A feature about IGGNITE2017 international camp appeared on RTE News2day. You can see it on RTE Player here.
A double-page spread about IGGNITE2017 was published in Woman’s Way.
The Sunday Business Post published an article about our Cookies Programme. You can see it here.
Four IGG members did an interview with Near FM. Listen to the podcast here.
We are four Guides in Ireland, aged 11, 12, 13 and 14. We each believe strongly in gender equality whatever your age, faith, or nationality. We are all approaching this topic from different points of view, yet we are all approaching the same conclusion.
“I would consider myself a feminist and I am definitely for gender equality. It has been something I know women and men have been fighting for since time immemorial. We should never just accept the norm of society, we should campaign for all the rights we deserve.”
“The world is evolving so much with technology, but some people like to move back rather than forward in society, and go against equality.”
“I believe that everyone should be given equal rights, equal pay and equal opportunities and it is disappointing to think that in some countries this is still not happening. Women and girls are being refused education and jobs outside of their home.”
“Women have not been treated nicely by men all throughout time. They have been denied their rights and opportunities. It is still very common and happening on a daily basis in offices, sports, factories, schools, and entertainment. I believe strongly that women’s rights are important. As a feminist, I believe that both genders deserve equality. Equal pay for equal work, and so on. I strongly hope and believe that from our generation forward, there will be equality in our society.”
This is a universal goal that we all wish to achieve and we hope you wish to achieve it with us.
Did you know 6 out of 10 girls opt out of daily activities because they are concerned about the way they look? Watch this short video to find out how Free Being Me is helping boost the self-esteem and body confidence of a whole generation of girls.
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