This particular weekend, the seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade scouts, called Cadettes, are using US Bureau of Labor Statistics data to research IT-related careers. They are also coaching younger Brownies and Daisies, who are in kindergarten through third grade, and the campers join briefly for various technology lessons.
Today, it's eighth-grader Angela Zhang's turn to lead a group of Daisies through a "Point, Click and Go" Internet navigation and safety session. A Girl Scout since the fourth grade, Zhang aspires to be a surgeon. This summer, she'll spend three weeks at a camp for talented youth sponsored by Johns Hopkins University.
"I like this camp because it's so relaxed and you learn so much," Zhang says.
In the afternoon, Leslie Biasi, a Girl Scout co-leader and project coordinator at Dot Hill Systems, a RAID storage firm, teaches a multimedia workshop for the older girls. Last year, Biasi took an unpaid leave of absence from her job to volunteer at the Technology Goddesses week-long camp.
Like Carmody, she is committed to helping girls appreciate the creative and career possibilities that IT has to offer.
Years ago, "when I first started learning HTML and saw how easy it was, I thought,'Why are only guys doing it?'" Biasi recalls. "HTML is just text telling the computer to display a picture or make text a certain color."
The products from Biasi's session are the main attraction on Day 2 of camp. That's when the girls showcase the multimedia presentations they've created about Technology Goddesses programs. These incorporate video, clip art, photos and lots of music, ranging from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to the bilingual rap and rock tunes of Karsh Kale.
Over the course of the two days, the girls also get girly with technology. They make scented bath salts and use graphics software and designs downloaded from the Internet to create labels for the jars. These items, Carmody points out, can be sold to raise additional funds for more Technology Goddesses programs or the Girl Scout troops, or to offer scholarships to Technology Goddesses summer camp. This, too, is in line with another Girl Scout motto: "A Girl Scout uses resources wisely."
Virtually all of the Technology Goddesses' camp activities, workshops and programs are designed to be repeated by other Girl Scout troops. Step-by-step materials and directions are available in a "badge-in-a-box" format.
"I'd like to see this program grow," says Carmody.