Legion of Youth Powered by Boeing: Nerdy Girls
Legion of Youth, powered by Boeing, is a Seahawks gameday ticket experience for community organizations that serve youth throughout the Northwest. The Seahawks vs. Cowboys game featured Nerdy Girls, a youth robotics organization that aims to equip girls with the skills needed to build and program the robot of their dreams. Get to know the inspiring youth:
Some of the Nerdy Girls took in training camp and got to show off one of their robots to rookie punter Michael Dickson.
Brooke Benson (14)
"Technology has interested me for long as I can remember, it's always fun to design and build stuff that reflects your capabilities. In the future I want to help as many people as I can with technology."
Caitlin Wassell (12)
"Though the exact fields have changed through time, I have long wanted to be a physicist. Learning new things about the properties of the universe and how they are connected is so mind-blowing, and there so many things we do not know. We are learning new things every day! The idea of being in such a ever-changing profession excites me."
Casia Logan (17)
"I love that the STEM fields are always growing, and there's always something new to learn: new coding languages, new techniques or designs for old things, and always new questions. When I participate in STEM activities, I become satisfied that I've learned something new, but also excited. As my family says, for every question answered there are two new ones!"
Christiana Osborne (16)
"I like that with technology you have so many outlets for creativity and people can look at things in so many different ways and it will help me follow my dreams because it is giving me the experience and confidence to pursue what I want to do."
Madison Sparks (14)
"One obstacle I have is my social anxiety, which I've overcome by drawing or carrying a stuffy."
Greta Mayer (14)
"One obstacle that I've had to overcome is the fear of starting Nerdy Girls on our own. It was a new idea and we didn't know if anyone would show up to the first meetup. We had to face our fear of failure and just try it. I'm so glad we did. It has been hard at times, but we now have a great group of 20+ girls in our program."
Megan Marsh (13)
"Don't underestimate your abilities and just go for it!"
Julia Hazlett (12)
"I haven't been in nerdy girls for all that long, but I think I will have a lot of fun. I was inspired to join nerdy girls because I like the idea of engineering things that could potentially help me in my everyday life. I also think it would be super fun to help other nerdy girls people work on an enjoyable, informational YouTube channel that would help teach people the importance of robotics. I'm so looking forward to it!"
Tessa Ward (12)
"I was inspired by the creativity and challenge involved in building, coding, and of course naming, robots. The Nerdy Girls took something that looked really hard and boring and made it super cool. I love that it is just teens helping teens and I get to build these amazing things myself."
Parker Mayer (17)
"My sister Greta and I started Nerdy Girls because we had a difficult time breaking into technical roles on our local competitive robotics team, we noticed that other girls on other teams were facing a similar struggle (the majority of girls in our league were taking on social roles or admin work). We wanted to change it, so we decided to build an alternative path for girls to arm themselves with the skills needed to take on technical roles, to become builders and coders on competitive robotics teams and beyond."
Mia Pollock (16)
"Don't be afraid to be a girl. The world doesn't stand up for you, so you have to stand up for all of us girls"
Sunny Trillo (15)
"An obstacle I have overcome is my anxiety and since I joined Nerdy Girls, I have found friends that help me with it."
Emma Whitaker (12)
"What inspired me was how welcoming they are. Nerdy girls has changed my life because now I'm ready for when the robots take over."
Faith Cooper (14)
"Technology interests me because it allows you to do thing you wouldn't normally be able to do."
Espy Parkins (16)
"Those that have inspired me are Sally Reid, Marie Curie, and many others who have succeeded in the science fields. Their perseverance despite struggles and disadvantages to reach their goals is totally awe inspiring."
Hazel Murphy (11)
"Never give up, treat others how you want to be treated, but most importantly have fun, life is a journey."
Mason Walsh (16)
"The thing that interests me about technology is the way technology works, and how it advances every day! I am interested with how code works, and how computer programming works, as well as programming with robots. Technology will hep me follow my dreams by keeping me focused on a certain task, one task at a time. I won't stop until I've finished with a task, no matter how difficult the task may be."
Maddie Bodenman (13)
"Just because you're a girl, doesn't mean you can't do amazing things."
Rachel Duck (15)
"I'm actually wanting to either be an artist or game designer, so learning how to code could REALLY come in handy depending on what type of game engine I end up using."
Rhayven Case (15)
"My (adoptive) Dad inspires me everyday with his determination to support my family. He can't always do everything with us, but he always tries and that is what matters most to me. My Dad was a programmer for many years, before he had to quit his job due to getting sick and having early onset of Parkinson's disease. I want to be a programmer just like him."
Raine Antonio (17)
"Technology is a vast and undefined field, I am amazed by what has happened in last fifty years, and wish to be on cutting edge of new ideas and development."
Stephanie Foley (15)
"My advice for people who look up to me is to just be yourself. You will find people that accept you for who you are, not someone that you pretend to be. You are enough, and you don't have to change yourself for anyone. Don't compare yourself to other people's lives either, just focus on your own life and make it the best it can be. Don't get upset over things that you can't control. But if it is something that you can control, do something about it. Be kind, even the smallest act of kindness can make someone's day. You never know what someone else is going through."
Tala Tilton-Bjorgaard (14)
"Well when I joined Nerdy Girls it was because I was so fascinated by robots and how they work it changed my life a little by giving me more knowledge on how a lot of technology works. Sadly I have stopped going to Nerdy Girls due to location change but hopefully I will be able to hop back in."
Faith Tozer (13)
"You can be whoever you want to be. You may follow in my footsteps, but I do not want you to try to fit yourself into a mold of me. I want everyone to be themselves and I want you to be an original masterpiece that everyone would admire."
