By Samantha Lee Donaldson, a guest writer for GeekGirlCon
For many students across the globe coming from low-income households, trade school courses are their life, from the first day of kindergarten to their last day of high school. The skills gap remains a global problem even now. Instead, if these students were given the ability to learn more than the basics which allow them to only receive low-wage professions, they could reverse this trend and help create an economy that reflects a growing parity in no time.
Just as doctors must take the Hippocratic oath, educators are asked to take the educator’s oath. This oath says, “I promise to seek and support policies that promote quality in teaching and learning and to provide all engaged in education the opportunity to achieve excellence.” Despite this, children who come from low-income households are often neglected and the low-income schools they attend are seldom given the amenities necessary to train these children to change the world and their lives, even though studies suggest that the key to power in the workplace is education, especially for women. Therefore, when these children are provided with sub-par education, they are ultimately set up for failure from the start and not given the tools necessary to achieve their goals in life.
Written by GeekGirlCon Deputy Director Kristine Hassell
Kristine Hassell recently sat down with Jessica Obrist to discuss burlesque, nerdlesque, and their shared love of Phryne Fisher! Jessica is also known as Jo Jo Stiletto, fabulous burlesque producer, performer, historian, and the Professor of Nerdlesque – the leading authority on all things nerdy in burlesque!
American television has seen some recent changes from a casting and technical stance. These are not changes we should heed with warning, but rather welcome.
Lately, women of color have been attaining more lead character roles, directing opportunities, and writing positions. Some prime examples of women of color as main characters that are killing it are shows like The Get Down (Herizen Guardiola is mixed race), Jane the Virgin (Gina Rodriguez is Latina), and American Crime (Regina King is African-American).These shows portray women of color as real people, not some stereotype. They show the struggles they go through and give a realistic view of the world where not everyone is white and looks and dresses a certain way.
There are more shows taking the leap and casting women of color in main roles (such as Fresh Off the Boat, Empire and Blackish), but what this might mean is that America is finally changing its stance on white people being in charge. However, this does not seem to be the case when it comes to directing, writing, and producing.
With so many panels to attend and games to play and exhibitors to see, there comes the painful realization that you can’t do it all.
We’d like to help lessen that pain. We’re going to live-blog and live-tweet some panels so you can follow along real-time or review at your leisure at the end of the day (when you visit our super cool Social Media Dashboard!)
Below is a list of panels we plan to cover during the con, along with Twitter handles and hashtags. Just search for the hashtag on Twitter or follow our Tumblr to check out our live blogging coverage.
“I think Kitty’s summer is kicking everyone else’s summers butt!” this statement on my Facebook page accompanied a picture of my nine year old daughter proudly standing by the door to a conference room at PopCap Games’ corporate offices. Kitty was getting ready to start her second week of Girls Make Games, a game design camp. Our friends and family followed along enthusiastically on social media as I posted daily updates of her camp adventures.
Girls Make Games is a three week camp that was held in July at 24 locations around the world. During the camp the participants learned about different career options in the gaming industry, met people working in the field, and toured game studios. In the three weeks they attended camp they also wrote, designed and developed a playable game.
Written by DIY Science Zone’s Event Coodinator Torrey Stenmark
The movie-watching scientists of the DIY Science Zone are back! In advance of the release of Captain America: Civil War, we’re bringing you our breakdown of Marvel’s The Avengers.
Curious about the science behind Tony Stark’s arc reactor (somewhat plausible), the Tesseract (less so), or the helicarrier (um, no)? Please join us on Twitter at #DIYSciFilm next week! We’ll start the film at 6:00 PDT and share comments, criticism, and general merriment.
Saturday, October 10 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm in Room 301/302
It’s your time to shine in all your geek finery at the GeekGirlCon ‘15 Costume Contest hosted by Devious Cosplay!
Tiffany – aka Devious Cosplay – has been actively cosplaying for 2 years. Before she discovered cosplay, she couldn’t even make a pillow. Her mom has been her mentor and taught her how to sew. She is 33, works full time, and has 2 children, so having a hobby that allows her to be creative and escape from the daily routine of adulthood is amazingly fun and liberating. She loves instantly having something in common with so many people. She hopes to continue to improve and make many more friends over the years. Her geek loves are video games, anything Joss Whedon, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, and comic books.
The Costume Contest is open to everyone – all ages, experience levels, and fandoms. Entrants will vie for Best Individual Costume, Best Group Costume, and Best Child’s Costume.
There will also be a new non-competitive Junior Cosplay event from 5:00 pm to 5:20 pm – bring your costumed young ones to the Costume Contest for a chance to show off their nerdiness.
Written by guest blogger and GeekGirlCon Social Media Manager Kristine Hassell
When you think about the Girl Scouts, what immediately pops into your head? Let’s be honest… you think cookies, right? I mean, who doesn’t love those decadent Samoas or addictive Thin Mints?
Image source: Daniel Kissinger
Hopefully when the Girl Scouts come to mind, you also think about their long tradition of confidence building and their efforts to help girls make the world into a better place. So an alliance between the Girl Scouts and GeekGirlCon makes total sense, right? That’s what we thought too. The Girl Scouts of Western Washington participated in previous GeekGirlCon conventions, both in our Exhibitor Hall and in the GeekGirlConnections room. Building on that, some smart folks had another idea…
Back in November of 2014, our Gaming Events Coordinator, Andy Munich, was invited to represent GeekGirlCon in a 24-hour D&D marathon hosted by Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast (WotC) to benefit Extra Life. During his eight-hour gaming stint, he struck up a conversation with Tammie Treibley Thompson, wife of WotC Senior Game Designer Rodney Thompson. During their conversation, Andy learned that Tammie was a troop leader and as they continued to talk, they quickly realized that there was some synchronicity in their ideas–and the GeekGirlScouts were born!
Last year at GeekGirlCon, I had the privilege of participating in the Do-It-Yourself Science Zone teaching kids about probability and randomness.
However, being The Riddler, I had a secret agenda in mind while doing my demonstrations–I have a trio of ten-sided dice that I use to gamble with my fellow super-villains, and I wanted to figure out which of them, if any, had a bias for or against any particular number. What better way to find out than to offload the boring task of rolling those dice over and over again onto unsuspecting passers-by?
