The school year has ended but Ma’ayanot’s teachers are busy teaching other teachers (and learning too!). Co-directors of STEAM, Orly Nadler and Gila Stein, along with math teacher Chanie Saffern attended the Global Forum on Girls Education II in Washington, D.C., on June 18-20. More than 750 educators, researchers, advocates and authors attended from 22 countries around the world.

“The Global Forum on Girls Education is an outstanding and inspiring gathering of passionate and talented international educators and female speakers sharing personal stories of growth and contributions to society,” said Saffern.

The STEAM team presented a session on “Fostering STEAM Leadership Through Co-Curricular STEAM Activities.” Their roundtable included four Ma’ayanot initiatives that empower the school’s students to be communal STEAM leaders: STEAMTalks, featuring professional women in STEAM careers to broaden the students’ scope and aspirations; a student-run YouTube channel featuring interviews with successful women in STEAM; the Genius Bar, a month-long reverse-mentorship opportunity in which students mentor women in technology; and Better Together, Ma’ayanot’s cooperative program with the the Jewish Home at Rockleigh in which students design technological solutions for the senior residents’ daily challenges.

The Global Forum offered Ma’ayanot teachers the opportunity to collaborate and share resources with other members of the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, which organized the conference. Stein explained, “It was truly a unique opportunity to present to like-minded advocates of excellence in girls’ education and to engage them in global conversations in order to share innovative ideas.”

Nadler added, “Perhaps one of the most remarkable things that happened as a result of speaking at the Global Forum was that a participant who is currently working in South Korea said that our session inspired her to collaborate in a more effective way with the orphanage next door.”