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NEW YORK CITY - A NEW REALITY inspired girls to be critical thinkers, artistic creators and tech innovators. The summit featured high-level UN Women officials, academics, young medical professionals, senior Big 4 directors & partners, entrepreneurs, students, young professionals and creatives. Girls were inspired by Elizabeth Nyamayaro's heroic personal journey to the top of UN Women, as a Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary of UN Women to the Executive Director and the head of the HeforShe Initiative. Helen Molinier, Director of Innovation & Entrepreneurship UNWOMEN provided a visual depiction of the gender disparities within the STEM, Innovation and Entrepreneurship space within most G8 countries. The peak of the summit was highlighted by the high energy design thinking workshop provided by Dr. Joann Halpern, Director of The Hasso Plattner Institute located in New York City. Design thinking is a creative and innovative methodology and mindset that provides a human-centered approach to problem solving. Summit participants were challenged to explore virtues of empathy and understanding with the girl sitting next to them. This provided the first step and basis to design thinking. Following this highly engaging workshop the girls descended into the 10 creative hubs led by our fantastic facilitators: Jonathan Abu, Jennifer Abu, Chloe Taylor, Jazmin Tanner, Priyanka Jaisignhai, La June McMillian, Tracey Erike, May Yang, Shaaz Nasir, Raakhee Miller, and Keli Chiu, supported by experienced design and tech consultants Vernon Martin, Arpitha Shetty, QianQian Song, Eric Zhu and our partner and sponsor Hemant Ramachandra, a HeForShe Champion. Surrounded by multi-talented and skilled professionals, entrepreneurs, and creatives our summit participants split into groups aligned with the community and global issues outlined by the SDGs and their individual lived experiences. In just under 2.5 hours, the girls crafted highly impressive, creative, and genius prototype solutions to combat homelessness, climate change, bullying, and poverty to list a few. They received top-notch coaching. Arielle Gross, Business Lead to the VP of Global Business Marketing and Chief Creative at Facebook. Arielle shared her story of obtaining her engineering degree, being a girl in STEM and joining the Facebook team. She left the girls with two a valuable professional skills a solid handshake & a one-minute elevator pitch. Her professional insight and tips assisted the girls in preparing for their prototype pitches for the final section of the summit. Each group had the opportunity to pitch their prototype and design process to all in attendance and to our three judges: Joan McCurdy, Shaaz Nasir (Director of Digital Transformation, Microsoft) and Benedict Joan (Nelson Mandela Fellow), for a private prototyping and app creation session at Apple Grand Central Station! At the start it was announced that only three teams would be selected for the special prize. All teams were spectacular, resulting in the event organizer, Aminka Belvitt, announcing that all participants would have the opportunity to attend one private prototyping and app session at the Apple Store. This opportunity was made possible through Apple Educational Services and its partnership with the ForUsGirls Foundation. Madness ensued on the 48th floor of Hudson Yards after the announcement! The First Edition of A NEW REALITY: Tech Summit for Girls provided girls from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds with creative, technical, personal and professional skills. The girls left with a mission to go out into the world and create new realities for themselves, their communities and the world! This event was sponsored by ThinkSys Inc, Hemant Ramachandra, Wofemtech Solutions Inc, SAP Next-Gen and Toms River District School Board, and charitable receipts were provided by (US) charitable partner The MINDS Foundation. Special thanks to Sandra Moerch Ben Christensen, and Ann Rosenberg for being the summit partners and hosts. Join us for the Second Edition of A NEW REALITY. Visit our website for information to come: www.anewrealitysummit.com 
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