JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Girls Inc. of Johnson City-Washington County opened two new educational rooms this week to provide local girls with activities that aim to prepare them for possible career paths.
A total of five unique rooms are in development as part of this project, which is funded in part by donations from local leaders. The rooms aim to provide a variety of educational fun to local girls while showing them the workings of potential career fields.
The STEM and Literacy rooms were just completed after only ten months, with a third room currently in progress, according to Girls Inc. leaders.
“In my mind, I wanted a STEM lab, a literacy room, an economic literacy room, performing arts and music room,” said Nikki Hughes, Girls Inc. CEO. “So we were going to try to do one room each year, but we actually hit the ground running so fast that we’ve completed two rooms and are getting ready to complete our third in one year.”
Hughes said the STEM room is special because it introduces young girls to an area of study that has historically lacked female leaders.
“Women and girls are very underrepresented in the STEM arena,” Hughes said. “So our vision is to kind of break that and start the girls at a younger age so when they leave Girls Inc. and they graduate from high school, they’re well equipped to be able to go into one of these fields. Like I said, we really focus on post-secondary education readiness, and we work with strong women, strong futures.”
The rooms were made possible thanks to donations from the Johnson City Rotary Clubs, Elizabethton Rotary Club, ETSU, and Johnson City’s Parks and Recreation Department.
