Four Palestinian girls make it to finals of Silicon Valley app contest
nablus — Four Palestinian high school friends are heading to California this week to pitch their mobile app about fire prevention to Silicon Valley’s tech leaders, after winning a slot in the finals of a worldwide competition among more than 19,000 teenage girls.
For the 11th graders from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the ticket of admission to the World Pitch Summit signals a particularly dramatic leap.
They come from middle class families that value education, but opportunities have been limited because of the omnipresent IsraeliPalestinian conflict, prevailing norms of patriarchy in their traditional society and typically underequipped schools with outdated teaching methods. “We are excited to travel in a plane for the first time in our lives, meet new people and see a new world,” said team member Wasan al-Sayed, 17. “We are excited to be in the most prestigious IT community in the world, Silicon Valley, where we can meet interesting people and see how the new world works.”
Twelve teams made it to the finals of the “Technovation Challenge” in San Jose, California, presenting apps that tackle problems in their communities. The Palestinian teens compete in the senior division against teams from Egypt, the United States, Mexico, India and Spain, for scholarships of up to $15,000.
The competition, now in its ninth year, is run by Iridescent, a global nonprofit offering opportunities to
young people, especially girls, through technology. The group said 60 per cent of the US participants enroll in additional computer science courses after the competition, with 30 per cent majoring in that field in college, well above the national rate among female US college students. Two-thirds of international
participants show an interest in technology-related courses, the group said.
Palestinian Education Minister Sabri Saidam counts on technology — along with a new emphasis on vocational training — to overhaul Palestinian schools, where many students still learn by rote. —