MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The STEMpower Our Girls program bagged a 2019 Gold Stevie® Award for PR Campaign of the Year in Public Service. The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor women executives, entrepreneurs, employees, and the companies they run– worldwide. The Stevie Awards have been hailed as the world’s premier business awards.
Starting Them Young
Evident partnered with the Philippine Business for Education (PBED) in co-designing the one-year program funded by Investing in Women, an initiative by the Australian government. The program’s main goal was to break the negative thinking of girls towards STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) at an early stage. This way, girls gain the confidence they need to get engaged and succeed in STEM fields.
Globally, only 30% of the STEM workforce are women and we see fewer and fewer women as we go up the executive ladder. In the Philippines, statistics from the Commission on Higher Education show that women make up only 36% of all STEM graduates.
STEMpower Our Girls hinges on the power of collective action to fix the leaky STEM pipeline. This entails building a community of supporters that will help young Filipinas discover and cultivate their passion for STEM.
“We jumped right into the opportunity to expose young Filipina learners to science and technology and through that, help them have a growing interest in careers in STEM,” said Love Basillote, PBEd executive director.
Women Building A Future For Women In STEM
STEMpower Our Girls worked with 120 Filipina sixth-graders in the pilot areas of Manila, Cebu, and Cagayan de Oro. PBEd led the on-ground activities that consisted of workshops, career caravans, and industry talks that introduced the girls to women with proven success in STEM fields. After school programs that ran for three months trained the girls to use STEM concepts and disciplines to effectively solve real-life problems.
Evident brought the campaign’s message to a bigger audience through strong branding, targeted digital marketing, and public relations. The integrated PR and digital campaign showcased social media posts that featured engaging quizzes and Filipina STEM role models with relatable stories that showed many potentials of a STEM career. The STEMpower Our Girls website also featured resources for students, parents, and teachers. Public relations efforts also included cultivating partnerships for the program.
“STEM education for girls is a matter of community—of people working together in empowering girls to start down the path of choosing STEM careers. Made by Filipinas for Filipinas, STEMpower Our Girls represents our commitment to investing in a future where more young girls are given opportunities to shape our world,” said Cecile Dominguez-Yujuico, Founder and CEO of Evident.
More than 1,500 entries from organizations and individuals in 33 nations were submitted this year for consideration in more than 90 Stevie Award categories. The global competition shines the spotlight on women executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations run by women. More than 200 leading women professionals from around the world determined the finalists and the winners.
Maggie Gallagher, president of the Stevie Awards, said, “In its 16th year, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business received an outstanding body of nominations from women in organizations of all types, in 25 nations. We are gratified by how meaningful it is to women to win a Stevie Award, and how impactful it can be on the futures of their careers and their organizations. We congratulate all of this year’s Grand, Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners for their achievements.”
Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners were determined by the average scores of more than 150 business professionals around the world, working on eight juries. The Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations.
