Every time 12-year-old Nayeli Moreno saw her older brother programming or doing work related to electrical engineering she wondered if her future would also lead her down the path of “exciting” technical careers despite the fact that what she had in her head was that “that was only for men.”
Until one day, his own brother asked him if he wanted to apply for the call for “She is an astronaut”, a program that brings Latin girls to NASA and she did not doubt her wish.
“I obviously wanted to enter,” Moreno tells Efeminista from his native Quito, in Ecuador, a week after returning from the United States, where he strengthened his desire to study a STEM career (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and to become an inspiration to other girls.
“My life changed a lot because at first I was very shy and didn’t speak. After I had this experience I can now function better. It has changed my way of seeing the world to know that we women can. This has been great because life has changed a lot for me and my colleagues”, she says excitedly.
“She is an astronaut” is a program of the Colombian foundation “SHE IS” which, through an alliance with the NASA Space Center, seeks to impact the lives of underprivileged girls in Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic bringing them closer to areas historically occupied by men and with the aim that they become agents of change in their communities.
“In 2020 we made the first call in Colombia for girls who live in extreme vulnerability between the ages of 9 and 15 and who have exceptional leadership and skills in these STEM careers, What are the giant gaps that we have today in terms of gender equality»explains to Efeminista Nadia Sánchez, president of SHE IS.
According to UN Womenwomen represent only 35% of those pursuing higher education in STEM and they are less than 30% of scientific researchers.
This gap, says the United Nations body, can start from very early ages in schools and at homeand continues and covers areas as broad as research, the development of professional careers and access to jobs generated in these areas.
“She is an astronaut”, program for Latin girls
Sánchez says that at first “She is an astronaut” was conceived as a one-week visit program to the Space Center, but that with the arrival of the pandemic and confinement everything changed. The girls had the opportunity to train for five months in topics as prevention of teenage pregnancyleadership, innovation, entrepreneurship, mental health and reproductive health.«It became a 360 model. Through STEM education we touch factors that generate not only any type of violence in girls and women but circles of poverty, “he adds.
In a first stage, 32 Colombian girls They were chosen from more than 1,000 applicants and after learning from a group of Latina scientists about robotics, programming, artificial intelligence, lunar habitat, leadership, conscious management of social networks, innovation and entrepreneurship, they spent a week at NASA.
During those months, the minors also had to create an entrepreneurial project which was presented before a jury in the United States.
«We invite women who have done wonderful things and who reach super big positions so that they sit one on one with the girls and tell them that they were also like thembecause they are wonderful stories, so they are generated like these role models within the program”, details Sánchez.
The success of that first call allowed the SHE IS Foundation to expand it to more countries in the region. “It is such a deep dive that for five months we find life stories and see how this transforms reality. Hence we say that “She is an astronaut” receives girls, but it returns agents of change to the countries”, add.
Transform girls’ beliefs and lives
Nayeli Moreno belongs to the call that SHE IS made this year so that 35 girls from Peru and Ecuador they could participate. She was favored among 1,500 minors. “We had girls from the Amazon jungle, girls representing their indigenous communities, from rural areas, from the coast, from the mountains,” says the president of the Foundation. “Many times we go to the territories to announce that they have been elected and to To get there you have to walk, get on the trail, take a boat. There is an impact not only for the girl but for her community”comments.
Many of the applicants, she says, think they don’t have access to those opportunities. “And see them leave their municipalities, not only to represent a country, but also that community, it transforms the whole of society and its entire social fabric.” They are girls who have not left the country or gotten on a plane and some have not even used an elevator or visited a hotel.
“We had little girls who normalized sexual abuse, violence or the armed conflict and when they begin to have more training, they know that they can leave their territories and generate more opportunities. It is a comprehensive training that transforms their lives and really generates a process of empowerment for their families and their community,” says Sánchez.
Moreno is one of those examples. She is the first in her family to leave the country at such a young age. And she says that everyone is very proud of her. In addition, her entrepreneurial project came in first place in this call.
The inspiration to build it came from the pandemic, when he had to take virtual classes. “Some children do not pay attention in class and this increased in the pandemic. When they returned to face-to-face, the children who did not pay attention could not pass the exams and that discouraged them. I realize that through augmented reality you can create a more fun way of teaching so that the children can learn more,” he says.
Their project is to create an area where there are cards on the walls that children can scan with their cell phones and can learn through 3D drawings. He is about to implement it in his old school.
“I want to be an example”
Moreno does not hide his enthusiasm when he talks about his future. «What I want to be for people is an example. That they can realize that everything in life is possible, that they can follow their dreams, that they don’t give up. It is very nice that everyone takes me as an example to follow their dreams.
Her friends have become his first admirersbecause, like her, they believed that they were not capable of entering those professions.
“I encourage them to want to study engineering. I tell them a lot about my experience, what I lived there (at NASA) and they are quite surprised. One already told me that she wanted to study engineering, who did want to arm robots. It is something that was not previously believed possible for a woman to study, ”
Related news
He also says that he sees himself working in a Space Center. «At NASA we met a woman from Guayaquil. She was a virtual reality engineer and I was fascinated to see her, how an Ecuadorian was able to get to work at NASA. My companions and I said that one day we will meet again here.
And he advocates that there be more programs like “She is an astronaut” that lead girls to “live new experiences.” “I wish there were more so that the stereotype that women can’t can be broken. Although this stereotype, as it has been created for a long time, is going to be a little difficult to break, but everything is possible, so one day we are going to break it. So I am very happy that there are programs like this », she highlights.« I think that the girls believe that we are changing their lives, but really they are changing our lives, because every day is a learning. Today’s girls in a few years are going to be those scientists and those engineers who are going to be representing the country, “says Sánchez.