On this day...
You may have seen the Facebook application that allows you to be temporarily transported back in time to a photo, video, or memory that you uploaded to Facebook on that same day in a past year. I sometimes take the time to scroll through these old posts and to enjoy the rush that comes with conjuring up a forgotten adventure, milestone, or funny exchange between family and friends.
It was on one of these “scrolls” down memory lane that I stopped and stared at what I saw on my phone screen. I read the headline “5 YEARS AGO TODAY” followed by my first post about the idea of Girls Engineering Change.
At that time we had no college chapter General Body Meetings on the schedule, no incredible donors contributing to online donation platforms, no website built by amazing volunteers, and no awesome pictures of girls beaming with pride holding completed solar powered USB chargers.
When I think about that first post 5 years ago, I am humbled and beyond grateful to think of the people who have dedicated every increment from one hour or 5 years of service to Girls Engineering Change to make that post a reality. Every professor who offered mentorship and support, every college student who volunteered, every brave and confidant student at a university who reached out to start their own chapter, every news team that helped us gain publicity, every Clinton Global Initiative staff member who helped us grow professionally, every parent who believed in the mission enough to enroll their child in a session, every executive team member who continues to meet late in the night to accommodate all the time zones we span, every family member and friend who let us explain our ideas and guided us, and most importantly every young girl who came into an engineering lab with an open mind and left feeling she could make a difference in the world—every one of you made Girls Engineering Change a reality.
Thank you.
Thank you to every single person who helped bring Girls Engineering Change from where it was 5 years ago to where it is today. As a freshman in college I could have never envisioned what that first post could grow to, so as I look ahead to the next 5 years, I cannot wait to continue this adventure alongside all of you.