© 2016 The Texas Lawbook.
By Jill McWhirter
At King & Spalding, the Women in IP Group has a motto: “Create, Compete, Innovate.” This commitment doesn’t just apply to client and companies, but to foster the next generation of leaders and innovators.
Nowhere does this come more into play than in the firm’s annual Girls STEM Robotics Event, now in its third year. Spurred by the fact that the percentage of women graduating with engineering degrees still remains far lower than that of men, this event recently allowed more than 110 girls in five cities simultaneously to build and battle their own robots.
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math, and on May 6 in Atlanta, Houston, New York, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C., robotics instructors helped girls explore the world of technology and engineering. Divided by age groups, the girls harnessed creativity and teamwork to create battle bots and compete in head-to-head robot competitions, build programmed Lego projects, and code robots using sensors, motors and software. Younger participants enjoyed an instructor-staffed area where, using large building blocks to create structures, provided even the youngest participants the ability to STEM-it.
The event was “cool,” said Houston participants (and sisters) Saba and Laila Scott, because “girls can see that they can do things like this too.” Saba, 12, said she was in a STEM program at her middle school where 20 students competed; but only four of them were girls.
The parents who brought their daughters to the event were equally pleased with what they were seeing. Kelly Battle, assistant general counsel with Exterran, has attended the event with her daughter the last two years. When her daughter heard the STEM event was happening, she didn’t mind missing any of her other activities that day because she was so excited to come and build robots. Elizabeth Bernal, senior legal counsel at Shell Oil Company, said the event focused on the “next generation of women” and demonstrated King & Spalding’s commitment to diversity.
In addition to the Girls STEM Robotics Event, the Women in IP group have organized several projects, including four scholarships to a Georgia Tech engineering summer camp for girls as well as sponsorships to Destination Imagination programs at two Title-1 schools in Houston. The Destination Imagination program offers kids from elementary school to high school the opportunity to work in teams on projects that incorporate STEM themes.
The motivation for creating these programs is not just the woeful stats that show girls shying away from STEM careers despite their aptitudes. For many members of Women in IP, it’s personal. I am a partner in King & Spalding’s Houston office, and not long ago my children’s school tested my son for math under a gifted and talented program. A teacher told me they had not tested my daughter because girls “usually don’t do well in math at a young age.” I took my daughter to have an IQ test and it showed an enormous aptitude for math, and I now actively encourage and demand that my daughter take a more rigorous math and science program. I saw firsthand how girls like my daughter were getting weeded out of these subjects sometimes before they even get out of elementary school, and I am not alone.
The Women in IP believe that supporting girls in the STEM fields encourages them to become a part of the most exciting areas of discovery and technological innovations. We believe that whatever these young girls decide to do later in life, we want them to know that STEM professions are a real and viable option for them.
Jill McWhirter is a partner in King & Spalding’s Houston office and a member of the energy practice’s management team. She advises clients on their technology transactions and provides strategic guidance on profitably developing, protecting, sharing and exploiting their technology and intellectual property assets. She is a leader of the firm’s Women in IP group.
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