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NewsroomPretty Brainy2022-05-17T14:11:53+00:00
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Ada Lovelace Day Event by Pretty Brainy
ColdQuanta Partners with Colorado Non-Profit Pretty Brainy to Celebrate Ada Lovelace Day
October 18, 2022
By Kenna Hughes-Castleberry from Inside Quantum Technology News In addition to International Women’s Day, Ada Lovelace Day is the other major holiday celebrating women wi... Read more
Girls will learn professional and social skills with Pretty Brainy and its program partners Oct. 14, 2022, for Ada Lovelace Day: Secrets of STEAM Success.
Nonprofit to Teach Girls How to Succeed in STEAM World
September 28, 2022
By BizWest.com FORT COLLINS — While retaining girls in science, techno... Read more
When gender disparity in education is eliminated, communities prosper
Stand with Us to Fight Gender Disparity in Education
August 16, 2021
Gender Disparity in Education Persists, Violence Against Women and Girls G... Read more
Team MISSion Innovation Engineering for Change, Now Remotely
Girls Engineering for Change and Collaborating Remotely
March 25, 2020
With Our All-Girl Team Working Remotely for the Climate, We Ask: "What Advi... Read more

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Ada Lovelace Day 2022: girls gaining professional and social skills to match their growing STEM and STEAM skills is Pretty Brainy's focus.
Ada Lovelace Day Event Oct. 14 Brings Girls Skills Not Taught in the STEM Classroom
September 28, 2022
"Secrets of STEAM Success" Will Connect Girls with Mentors and Skills to Help Them Stay in Science, Tech and Engineering Loveland, Colorado — (September 21, 2022) — While... Read more
The all-woman innovation marathon for the climate_Service learning from Pretty Brainy
Students Use STEM to Advance Climate Action at MISSion Innovation
October 12, 2018
Innovation Marathon Invites Girls to Design Real-life, Local Solutions Fort... Read more
Alpha Sigma Kappa Supports Girls in STEM at March 29 Fundraiser
Public Can Experience Good Science as Fun & Play March 29
March 21, 2017
Women in Technical Studies Will Lead Science Experiments in Glitter Slime, ... Read more
It’s National Mentoring Month: New Program Combines Mentoring and Philanthropy to Attract and Retain Girls in STEM
August 11, 2016
Girls Will Design Lighting for Habitat for Humanity While Working with Prof... Read more

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Girls in STEM find Rigor, Confidence, Mentoring and More
Through STEM, Middle and High School Girls Find Confidence, Relevance, Rigor, and Mentoring
June 4, 2017
Audience: Parents, Educators, School Admins, College Women in STEM | Keywords: girl power, girls in STEM, mentoring, empowerment, SEL/social & emotional learning, Wonder Wom... Read more
Young Entrepreneurs and Girls in STEM through Pretty Brainy
Why Wait for Adulthood? These Girls in STEM Are Philanthropists and Entrepreneurs Influencing the World Today
September 24, 2016
Audience: Education, General | Keywords: Girls in STEM, 21st century skil... Read more

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Women scientists who made history are the focus of Pretty Brainy's celebration of Women's History Month
Seven Women Scientists Who Broke Barriers and Paid the Price for Being Women
March 8, 2021
By Kenna Castleberry “Each time a girl opens a book and reads a womanless history, she learns she is worth less.”  — Myra Pollack Sadker, Professor, Author, Researcher... Read more
Thought Leadership – Meena Balgopal
November 4, 2016
Dr. Meena Balgopal | Associate Professor, Science Education, Colorado State... Read more
Girl Empowerment Thought Leaders, Heidi Olinger
Thought Leadership – Heidi Olinger
September 23, 2016
Heidi A. Olinger | Founder & Chief Executive, Pretty Brainy | Heidi A... Read more

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Photos and Videos

Kata, grade 4, with the LED jacket she designed to increase a runner’s visibility at night. STEAM workshop: Textiles + TechStyles.
Girls in STEM and STEAM
In learning about circuitry, the science of electricity, and customer-centric design, Lacy (l) and Madeleine, grades 4 and 5, created an interior-lit backpack. The STEAM workshop in which they participated, Textiles + TechStyles, was made possible with funding from the OtterCares Foundation.
Girls in STEM and STEAM
Deanna Scott, executive director, Northern Colorado Bioscience Cluster, interviews Max Kwan and Karina DeLeon about their device to help teens keep track of their car keys. The Bioscience Cluster sponsored the 2016 Pretty Brainy Shark Tank at the Innosphere, a Colorado incubator for startups. Photo: Shanthini Ode
Girls in STEM and STEAM
Members of the Pretty Brainy board of directors, (l to r) Dr. Meena Balgopal, Dawn Putney, and Katie M. Hoffner, hosted the organization’s June 2016 STEAM showcase at the Innosphere in Fort Collins, CO. photo: Shanthini Ode
Girls in STEM and STEAM
Laprele Zeller, grade 6, fields questions about her design from OtterCares Executive Director Gary Rogers. After conducting interviews at a local shelter, Laprele created an emergency alert backpack for the homeless. The 11-year-old was a participant in Textiles + TechStyles2, a Pretty Brainy workshop in which middle and high schoolers learn design thinking and how to code in the Arduino programming environment. photo: Shanthini Ode
Girls in STEM and STEAM
Mentoring is a key component of Pretty Brainy’s mission to empower girls to gain STEAM. Briana Chamberlain, Schuyler Rideout and Daniela Gonzalez (l to r), Engineering majors at Colorado State University, began mentoring girls with Pretty Brainy in February 2015. One hundred percent of Pretty Brainy students agree, “I like working with the mentors.” photo: Shanthini Ode
Girls in STEM and STEAM
Gary Rogers, OtterCares executive director, with Nancy Richardson (l), who launched the OtterCares Foundation in 2010, and Heidi Olinger, CEO, Pretty Brainy. Richardson underwrote the inaugural Pretty Brainy STEAM Awards Fundraiser.
Organization News
Guests included (l to r) Colorado State Representative Jeni James Arndt; Wade Troxell, Fort Collins, CO, mayor and Colorado State University professor of Mechanical Engineering; Katie M. Hoffner, member of the Pretty Brainy Board of Directors; and Lisa Rephlo, executive director, Colorado Clean Energy Cluster.
Organization News
Winners of the Pretty Brainy STEAM Award for Excellence in Collaboration & Teamwork. With Heidi Olinger (l), Pretty Brainy CEO, and Nancy Richardson, OtterCares founder, are Autumn Gooseff, Erica Martino, Taylor Lyle, M.J. Winey, and their mentor, Engineering major Lizette Van Zyl. The girls designed family-safe stairway lighting for a Habitat for Humanity home.
Organization News
Bee Pettner, 14, Maria Passantino, 17, and Madeleine Boyles, 13, represented Pretty Brainy at the 2016 conference of the International Society for Technology in Education (#ISTE2016).
Community
The girls, who joined Pretty Brainy CEO Heidi Olinger at the conference, taught teachers from around the globe how to build circuits with eTextiles.
Community
Maria looks at the work of her student, Michael Davidson, a teacher from New Zealand. Davidson tweeted about his success in creating his first-ever circuit, “My light went on!” Librarian Michelle Colte posted, “Sewed a circuit and met amazing organization @prettybrainy. Must bring to Hawaii.”
Community
Pretty Brainy’s chaperones for the conference, which was attended by a reported 16,000 educators worldwide, were (from left) David Pettner, Audre Pettner and Claire Boyles, who gathered for a photo opp with Madeleine, Maria, Bee, and Heidi Olinger.
Community
Pretty Brilliant
Heidi Olinger | How to Get Girls to Like STEM | TED Talk
Empowering Girls to Gain STEAM
Girls Using Science, Math for Fashion
Pretty Brainy Featured on Colorado’s Best

Pretty Brilliant: Girls in Service Learning and Engineering Design Making Life Bright for Others.
This inside view of a Pretty Brainy workshop documents the organization’s style of project-based learning and mentoring.

It doesn’t cost money and it doesn’t require technology: Heidi Olinger outlines four ways to engage girls in STEM right now, when neither girls nor the nation can afford to be STEM illiterate.

/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/circuits.mp4

Students in Textiles + TechStyles™, a Pretty Brainy workshop in code, innovation and design thinking, teach their parents to build circuits.

NBC 9News Denver features Pretty Brainy’s use of fashion design to expand how girls experience STEM.

In a Cyber Monday feature, Colorado’s Best invites Pretty Brainy to demonstrate the eco-fashion and soil science lessons of its program, The STEM of Fashion Design™.


Testimonials

“It all comes together as one huge amazing productive thing that we all do together. It’s really fun. The end goal is to be able to help our client while gaining knowledge for ourselves.”

Autumn, 13

“It really helps that we can raise our hand to ask a question, even if we don’t know the answer. That helps with the trust that we all have. If someone asks a stupid question or a question that we think is stupid, no one is going to laugh.”

M.J., 14

“First of all, Pretty Brainy is really fun. I didn’t actually think that it was going to be really fun because I didn’t really like engineering, and my parents want me to be an engineer, and I’m like, ‘No’. But this was actually really fun. I guess I had a misconception about what engineering was. Now I like engineering.”

Anoushka, 12

“I love Pretty Brainy and I really want to come back next year.”

Laprele, 11

“This class has impacted my education and my interest in education in a positive manner.”

Ashley, 12

“This class has really resparked my interest in technology and programming.”

Esther, 16

“The Pretty Brainy workshop has increased my interest in computer science. I was never really aware of how coding worked before this class and I hadn’t really done any of it. I like how Pretty Brainy lets us figure out by ourselves how to use the code vs. teaching us step by step.”

Madeleine, 13

“Pretty Brainy is such a great program and opportunity. It is so fun and educational and is the highlight of my Saturday.”

Bee, 14

“This program is fantastic.”

Maria, 17

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Pretty Brainy is a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit with tax ID 80-0958846.
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