By Robert Andre Emmanuel
Yesterday, people and institutions across the globe took the time to recognise and praise the great strides that women and girls have made in the ICT space and to call for greater opportunities for women leaders in ICT.
At the Caricom level, the day was celebrated under the theme, “Inspiring Youth Innovation: Leading Change in Caricom”.
Under the global theme of “Leadership”, Girls in ICT Day 2024 was celebrated at Antigua and Barbuda Institute of Technology (ABIIT) where the Ministry of Education held a BrightHack competition to underscore the critical need for strong female role models in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers.
Entrepreneur Elijah James said that having girls involved in STEM is “super important” to global development.
“The more opportunities we can provide for you to showcase your talent and skills will the more opportunities that we can see solutions the world can embrace,” James said.
Students from Sir Novelle Richards were named the winner of the Hackathon competition with their modern smart library pitch, creating a cardboard model which greatly impressed the judges.
Meanwhile, the featured speaker and Flow brand ambassador, Jayd Salmon, shared her experience using ICT, asking young girls to always think that “the question isn’t who is going to let me, but it’s who is going to stop me?”
Speaking about her personality and her work as a social media influencer, she shared that “as I grew older, I began to hone into the Internet because it continued to develop, and then came the social media platforms.
“Being a social media influencer comes with great responsibility and once you have a platform, the things you do, the things you post and as people follow you, you begin to continue call them your community and you want to ensure that the messages you are sending are the correct messages,” Salmon said.
She added that working in the social media space creates these high expectations, she charges the young girls with reflecting on whether they wish to remain true to themselves or conform to societal norms.
“It is very easy to lose yourself to stay relevant in the social media world of today; what was once a fun outlet of self-expression and creativity, has now become an e-commerce platform and requires knowledge in aesthetic, algorithms, and trends.
“But I want to say to you: along with consistency, there is nothing more important than staying true to your roots,” she explained.
Salmon spoke about the positive rewards of being social media influencer or gamer, stating that the misconception that it was not real job should be discarded.
“I am living testimony that you can earn an income from being a social media influencer, you can network from being a social media influencer, it is very beneficial,” Salmon stated.