Black Girls Do Engineer – HerSTEM Pitch Tank Event

Black Girls Do Engineer is an award-winning non-profit organization that inspires young black girls to pursue an education and career in S.T.E.M. fields. Kara Branch, chemical engineer and Founder and CEO of BGDE, founded this organization in 2019 to create a space for her daughters to learn about S.T.E.M. and be the representation she did not have on her journey in the industry.

Branch held a mock HerSTEM “Pitch Tank” in Houston, where young girls practiced brainstorming business ideas in various industries to present to S.T.E.M. Professional and investors. Branch talked to and asked them questions about each industry that their businesses will be based on, tech, healthcare, logistics & transportation, energy, manufacturing, and aerospace. Jordyn Wright, Founder of Passion to Purpose Youth Entrepreneurship Program & J. Brielle Handmade Goods, spoke to the girls about her advice on how to be an entrepreneur and how to pitch to a crowd. After, the girls split up into assigned groups to identify a problem in one of the previously mentioned fields and come up with innovative business solutions. The girls had to organize their ideas and design a presentation to ask volunteer judges to “invest” in their business. The volunteer judges rated their presentation on originality, creativeness, neatness, and knowledge. At the end of the presentations the judges chose the top three business, and those teams won prizes.

BDGE has been able to impact 4,000 girls and college students nationally and over half of those girls come from underrepresented communities. With BGDE, Branch has created representation with over 200 workshops like this one and has been granted over $50,0000 in scholarships. BGDE’s home is in Houston but is a national organization, working towards creating safe spaces for black girls and women in S.T.E.M.