Intern Feature: Gözde Tosun
There are many different cogs that go into the machine of Girls Code the World, and each one plays a vital part in making the wheels go round. Without all of the amazing interns we have here, we would never be able to run as smoothly as we do. With our upcoming STEM Summer Camps, we want to make sure that the children who participate get the absolute most out of this experience. Not only do we want them to understand the importance of pursuing their STEM based dreams, we truly want them to learn as well! Because of this, Girls Code the World wanted hire an intern who could specialize in the area of creating curriculum that found a balance between inspiring students to be our nation’s leaders and diversifying the skills and topics they could learn in the course of the five day program.
This leads us into our next intern feature, featuring Gözde Tosun, our Education and Curriculum Design Intern. Gözde is an extremely valuable member of our team for many reasons! At the beginning of her long and impressive list of degrees, she completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Teaching Mathematics at Bogazici University, all the way in Istanbul. She then went to the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, where she obtained her Master’s Degree in Curriculum & Instruction. She is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at Penn State University for Curriculum and Instruction, and in July, Gözde is starting a new role at the Smithsonian Science Center. We are so lucky to have someone as dedicated to teaching kids as Gözde is!
During her time here, Gözde took a look at all of the pre-existing curriculum from our past programs and provided feedback and suggestions modify it into something even more progressive, intersectional, and hands-on. She also helped create a list of best practices for designing and implementing STEM lessons in the future. Gözde has been facilitating the training of all of our Summer Program Associates, addressing their hopes and fears, challenging them to thing harder about what curriculum really means, and giving them feedback on their own lesson plans that they design based of their own passions in STEM.
“Females are historically underrepresented in STEM fields. I think it is important that GCTW provides opportunities for young girls to engage in STEM activities and potentially inspires them to pursue a career in STEM related fields.”
-Gözde on why GCTW is important
Gözde, of course, would like to pursue a career in curriculum development, so when she heard about the open position at Girls Code the World, she knew this would be a mutually beneficial experience. Her academic background perfectly met with what we hoped we could find, and she has been so helpful and made fantastic contributions! “Working with Sydney and Mina is great. I am impressed with the fact that they started this kind of organization very early in their career,” she says about our co-founders, but it wouldn’t be possible without all of the help. We cannot thank Gözde enough for time here, and are so excited to see what amazing things she accomplishes throughout her career.
