A global nonprofit is bringing its mission to empower girls through tech to Pittsburgh

A global nonprofit aiming to empower young girls to enter the tech field is launching a Pittsburgh chapter. The goal: Give students between the ages of 8 and 18 a chance to gain mentorship and build apps that can solve modern-day problems.

CEO Tara Chklovski says she founded Technovation to give underrepresented communities a way to tackle problems they face firsthand with technology. Fast forward nearly two decades, and the org has grown to encompass 2,100 Technovation Girls teams in places such as Botswana, Morocco, Boston — and as of March 2024, the Steel City.

The organization’s leadership felt Pittsburgh should be the next city with a Technovation chapter due to the city’s status as an often underrated robotics hub, Chklovski said.

Tara Chklovski. (Courtest Technovation)

“It’s the hub for a lot of innovation. You have CMU there. And then on the other side you also have many, many communities that are completely underrepresented in technology,” she told Technical.ly. “I think the juxtaposition of those two groups fits with our program model, because the way we work is where girls that are underrepresented in technology, they connect them to mentors from the tech industry.”

The org relies on community partnerships to adapt programs to fit the needs of the girls who will be participating, Chklovski said. Technovation comes to Pittsburgh in collaboration with the public education agency Allegheny Intermediate Unit. The org also maintains connections to institutions such as Carnegie Mellon University and edtech company Carnegie Learning, which have supported Technovation in other capacities in the past.

The Pittsburgh Technovation chapter’s free, project-based programming will include a 12-week curriculum during which participants can learn about coding, artificial intelligence, tech entrepreneurship, and how to make their own apps.

Through the years, Chklovksi said, students have continuously impressed her with their creativity and the quality of the app designs they’re able to come up with in response to prompts.

“We always underestimate young girls, and what they’re capable of,” Chklovski said. “I think many of our expectations are based on strong social stereotypes, and I think Technovation is a very clear example of when young girls are given the prompt to find a problem in your community, how it enlarges their horizons, their sense of self-efficacy, [and] forces skill set. And the ideas that they come up with are so innovative.”

Beyond the skills participants walk away with, the program’s accessibility is a major asset, Chklovski said. There is a registration process that requires parental consent with a March 13 deadline, but aside from that, it is open to all girls between 8 and 18, even if they have no previous tech experience: “We want all girls to participate.”

Presenting during Technovation’s Pitch Awards. (Courtesy Technovation)

This story is a part of Technical.ly’s Pathways to Tech Careers Month. See the full 2024 editorial calendar.