Hackathon for Social Justice
Young women from 9th grade to college seniors are encouraged to participate in Hackathon for Social Justice, a 36-hour competition that will challenge teams to research, design, and build a web application prototype with the potential to make a lasting impact on the culture and landscape of STEM academia and industry for generations of girls and women of color.
The hackathon will take place at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics lab located in Laurel, MD and starts at 7:00 am on Saturday, November 19 through 7:00 pm on Sunday, November 20. The team that develops the best prototype will receive a prize package which includes incubation and acceleration resources.
Hackathon for Social Justice is a signature program of the National STEM Collaborative in partnership with the STEM Program Management Office at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and with Surge Assembly. Housed in the Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology at Arizona State University, The National STEM Collaborative (NSTEMC) is a consortium of higher education institutions and non-profit agencies committed to advocating for women and girls of color to persist and succeed in STEM both academically and professionally.
Participants, dubbed “technosocial change agents”, will create an interactive learning tool for identifying and addressing implicit bias in the recruitment, hiring, and promotion of STEM faculty in post-secondary institutions. This participatory educational platform can help facilitate a more inclusive process and provide institutions of higher education and STEM industries strategies to diversify their faculty and workforce.
No prior coding or app development experience is necessary. Hackathon for Social Justice welcomes girls from diverse backgrounds, disciplines, and skill levels to come together for a collaborative exercise in innovation, community building, learning, and social change. Although we strongly encourage girls and women of color to apply, the hackathon welcomes any person who advocates for race and gender equity in STEM.