Grants:Project/Rapid/PixelHacks/PixelHacks V
pixelhacks.com• sanil@hackplus.io
Project Goal
editBriefly explain what are you trying to accomplish with this project, or what do you expect will change as a result of this grant. Example goals include, "recruit new editors", "add high quality content", or "train existing editors on a specific skill".
- In line with the January Art + Feminism focus, our goal is to help bridge the gender gap in tech and encourage high school girls to solve problems they face in their community with tech, a lack of which is reflected in the under-representative nature of the tech industry. To accomplish this we plan to host an event that would have these young women learn fundamental skills in technology, presentation, and multimedia -- this includes creative expression in the forms of UI/UX design, marketing, and the communication of a message or goal through artful design. The grant would provide invaluable funding as to our event and thus the realization of this goal in the forms of securing a venue, hosting educational technology workshops, and obtaining software tools to develop projects -- all to allow the young women an empowering and transformative experience with the potential to create a workspace with gender equality.
Project Plan
editActivities
editTell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing?
- The planning of PixelHacks V will begin as of March of this year, with the time up until then being spent towards the conclusion of PixelHacks IV in late January, following up with sponsors and attendees in early February, and beginning with recruitment of a new organizing team from late February to early March. After a team is formed, with members from the previous year both taking active involvement as well as providing counsel for the upcoming event using their experience, planning will begin with locating a venue for the event, reaching out for volunteers (judges for the projects, mentors to help with the projects, and panelists for inspirational discussion on the female experience in the workplace) and searching for potential sponsors. Sponsorship requests for funding, prizes, swag and snacks will continue from March to the August, a period of time over which the event website will be continually updated with news and sponsor information. At this point the team will also begin promotions of PixelHacks V on social media, and the Run-Of-The-Show will also start to be put together. Registration for the event is planned to open in December and close whenever the attendee goal (250 people) has been met. All of the aforementioned preparations will continue up until January, by which orders will be placed for vendors of food, prizes, and apparel.
The entire event would take place over two days and feature an overnight component for those who wish to stay the duration of the event. On the first day participants would be introduced to the specifics of the technology challenge and create teams to tackle this issue -- creating a relevant project (app, website, or other) that would address some current problem in our modern world, with emphasis on the obstacles that women face in a prejudiced society. The participants would have access to technology tools, educational workshops by which they gain the skills necessary to both build the project as well as begin a pursuit of a technological career, and a panel of strong successful females to share their challenges and experiences in the harsh and often misogynistic workplace environment -- and, more importantly, how they overcame these issues to succeed. The event would be overnight for those who wish to stay, and for those who don't the event would start again the next morning. Participants would finish and then submit their projects to a group of professional judges, and the winners would receive prizes according to various categories (e.g. most creative, best project, best delivery). Attendees would have access to snacks throughout the entire two days, as well as three meals. The grant would be an important addition to our project, by which we would be able to start developing concrete educational workshops, planning for catering, and securing the venue.
How will you let others in your community know about your project (please provide links to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions)? Why are you targeting a specific audience?
- We are promoting PixelHacks V through various social media platforms, mostly through that of Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/PixelHacksCA/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/Go_PixelHacks), and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/pixelhacksca/). This is because our audience of female high school students is heavily exposed to these platforms, so these places are the best for letting potential participants know of our hackathon. We are targeting female high school students specifically because of our determination to bridge the gender gap in tech, which starts by encouraging young women to work with technology and empowering the next female generation with knowledge of the field.
What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?
- By the end of PixelHacks V we would have provided an educational and eye-opening experience to the 250 female high school participants, giving them the experience and/or inspiration necessary to continue in the tech field. Follow-up for participants will involve the opportunity to extend the projects developed in the hackathon, taking them one step further and creating an actual, usable product or technology. As for the volunteers and workers at our event, they will receive compensation as well as opportunities for future hackathon participation.
Impact
editHow will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets and feel free to add more specific to your project:
- Number of total participants: 250
- We are expecting 250 participants, and if Wikimedia becomes involved with PixelHacks V then several of the projects may have to do with Wikimedia. Participants will be offered Wikimedia as a platform for their ideas and products, as well as an essential source of information that they can both draw from or add to as they conduct their own research.
Resources
editWhat resources do you have? Include information on who is the organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).
- The organizing team for PixelHacks V consists of sixteen high school females with previous hackathon organizing experience. The team has four components: Sponsorship, which reaches out for prizes, swag, and funding; Technology, which maintains the PixelHacks website; Operations, which is in charge of the venue, volunteers and workers, and the running of the hackathon both before and during the event; and Outreach, which promotes PixelHacks V on various social media platforms. Our resources include the support of MLH, an organization dedicated to helping events like ours succeed with the direct assistance, advice, and connections of various adult professionals; Youth Leadership Incubator Inc dba Hack+, which is a nonprofit that also helps run events like ours and acts as a fiscal partner for all our expenses, invoices, and legal matters; and our board of advisors, which include previous organizer team members who help with technical details of running the event and also providing connections towards sponsorship opportunities.
What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense:
- Food (for breakfast: $13 for baker's dozen of Noah's Bagels catered - dollar per bagel comes out to $250 USD)
- Drinks (for breakfast: $13 for coffee for a dozen at Starbucks catered - comes out to about $270 USD)
- Venue reimbursement (estimated $500 USD)
- Workshops (for 1 hour workshops: AI, Machine Learning, and HTML/CSS instructors $200 each - comes out to $600 USD)
- Tools(Adobe and Sketch design software, limited service, estimated $300 USD)
GRAND TOTAL = $1920 USD
Endorsements
edit"These students represent the frontier of tech inclusivity and accessibility." -Taylor Fang, co-founder of Allgirlithm
"Being a part of this experience has given me a new outlook on computer science. It has opened my eyes to the wide range of opportunities that computer science provides." -Ally Lee, former participant