SourceAmerica Partners with Horizon GoodWill for "Girlz Engineering Camp" in Rockville, MD

By Theresa O'Neill

Building a tower of index cards that can balance a tennis ball is a task that would be difficult for anyone. As 20 rising ninth and tenth grader students discovered while attending Girlz Engineering Camp July 24-28 at Rockville High School in Rockville, Maryland, their solutions required creativity and thoughtful engineering. Adding another layer of complexity to it, the girls completed the task alongside students with disabilities at their school to get a better understanding of their capabilities and challenges.

Girlz Engineering Camp is an initiative sponsored by Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland to increase the number of female students interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. This year SourceAmerica, a national disability employment leader, partnered with MCPS and Horizon Goodwill Industries in Hagerstown, Maryland, to provide camp curriculum in line with its mission: supporting people with disabilities in their jobs. Horizon Goodwill sells second-hand items in retail stores and online at shop.goodwill.com, and employs people with disabilities.

SourceAmerica's Productivity Engineer and Design Challenge Program Manager, Charissa Garcia, led the week-long camp. She structured the week's activities around the SourceAmerica Design Challenge, a semester-long engineering competition where students from high schools and colleges across America build workplace technology for businesses employing people with disabilities.

"We were thrilled to work with MCPS and Horizon Goodwill for Girlz Engineering Camp," Garcia said. "It offers a supportive learning environment for girls to explore the many different aspects of the engineering field and show them how they can use their skills to help others."

Following disability awareness training, the girls took a field trip to Horizon Goodwill where they met with Chief Mission Officer Catherine Fleming. They toured the facility and learned about areas within the e-commerce division that could use engineering improvements. Then they divided into small teams of 2-3 people and selected their projects, such as streamlining the retail organizational system, creating a shipping system and building a station to sort jewelry. They had two working days to create cardboard prototypes of their innovations, a tri-fold poster, and PowerPoint presentation of how their prototypes could help Horizon Goodwill's employees be more productive. At week's end, they presented their prototypes to Horizon Goodwill leadership and their parents. WDVM, in Hagerstown, Maryland, covered the event.

"I was impressed with the level of design the girls completed within eight hours," said Rose Carroll, Horizon Goodwill e-commerce manager. "Many of them had accomplished nearly functional prototype models of their creations. Their presentations expanded upon the details and functionality to be added by further shop time and the materials that would be used in the full-size version."

Several teams tackled the same design challenges, offering Horizon Goodwill management solutions from different points of view. A change suggested on site was to use tape marks on the shipping table to make measuring bubble wrap easier. Carroll said the suggestion will be immediately implemented.

Horizon Goodwill regularly participates in the SourceAmerica Design Challenge. Carroll said she's ready to participate in the next one.

"My biggest joy in this experience was seeing the excitement the girls had for their designs and the pride they took in being able to help us make improvements to a living work environment instead of just a classroom exercise," Carroll said. "They were all given the opportunity to take their prototypes home to see if they could improve upon them or to have as a memento of the camp and every model went home."

Carroll added: "Having completed my first Design Challenge I feel better prepared to offer the next group an even better experience. I know more about what information they need and what we should provide them as a business."

SourceAmerica will open registration nationally for the high school Design Challenge in mid-August. Garcia said she hopes Girlz Engineering Week will spur new schools to get involved in this year's competition.

"Community partnerships like Girlz Engineering Camp expose more people to SourceAmerica's mission of creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities," Garcia said. "The Design Challenge also helps debunk the myths around their capabilities as students work alongside them. We look forward to new Design Challenge schools participating this year and spreading a positive message of how diversity and inclusion in the workplace benefits everyone."

The Design Challenge is part of SourceAmerica's Productivity Innovation Programs. For more information, visit www.SourceAmerica.org/Design-Challenge.