>>
Thank you for
joining this
Biden-Harris
campaign, Young
Americans in STEAM
Roundtable, with Karlie
Kloss and Reshma
Saujani.
And now, please welcome
shift 7 CEO,
Megan Smith.
>>Hello, everybody.
Welcome.
We are going to
have an awesome
program.
We
have Karlie, Reshma.
Of
course we're
talking about
Young Americans,
science,
technology,
arts, keep the
arts, and math,
but we're
going to be focusing on
girls.
I have my pink hat
and I have my
pink glasses
and I'm ready.
Because we
all belong in STEM, men,
women, everybody.
So without further
ado, I'm
going to pull
in the most
amazing colleagues
for this
conversation, and I also
would share
that I got to
serve as the
United States
chief technology
officer for
President Obama and vice
president Biden.
They are
incredible techie
science
geek people.
They're with
us.
They love this stuff,
they include
and and we're
going to get into that.
Computer science
for all we
launched with
them and we
believe computer science
should be for
all people and
any topic you care about
applying it to, and
especially I love the
point of kindness at the
top.
So I want to get
to my awesome
colleagues.
First up, Karlie Kloss.
She's an American
supermodel.
You know her.
She's an entrepreneur,
a philanthropist,
originally from St.
Louis and I would share
that I was with vice
president Biden
in launch
code, which
is an amazing
coding boot camp and
inclusion space for tech
north of dell March.
Love
that place, they were
leaders.
You have walked
with Christian Dior very
satuy, others,
and they are
a techie.
You founded Code
Pink in 2015.
Thank you, thank
you, thank you.
It's a non-profit
that focuses on
creating learning
experiences and
opportunities
and community
for young women
to increase
confidence, number
one, and
experience, and
inspire you
all to come
pursue careers
that include
tech, no matter
what it is.
It might be the tech
industry or it might
be civic or philanthropy
or
peace building
with tech.
I'm reading 5,000 women.
Karlie, awesome.
Thank you, thank
you, thank you.
You
and I have worked
together.
Reshma Saujani
is joining
us.
She is the founder and
CEO of Girls
Who Code, which
started small
small and has
exploded, 300,000 girls
across 50 of the United
States, Canada,
India, UK,
growing in other
countries.
The organization
is reaching
millions and millions of
people.
Also, you have been
a thought leader
with all of
the adults who
would realize
oh, why don't
I just include
my girls and
my boys in all
of this program?
Thank you so much
for all the work
both of you have done
and our many colleagues
in the CS for
all movement
movement, the
team at AI for
all, others.
There's so many
of us, including
teachers who
have done such
a beautiful job
bringing in
coding in their
classes.
I want to shout-out my
favorite in
Oklahoma that
teaches robotics
and head
start.
There's these little
boards that are
just inside
your phone and you could
learn about them
and program
them and we can make the
world a better place,
climate or justice or
anything.
Welcome.
>>What
a beautiful
introduction.
I
couldn't agree more.
Teachers place
is a vital
part of to conversation.
Megan, thank
you so much for
the kind introduction.
I am so excited to be
here today to support
the future of women
in STEAM.
I'm honored to be in such
incredible company with
Reshma and yourself and
the amazing students who
will be joining
us very shortly.
I don't
know, Reshma,
your kind of
background background,
but
how I got started
in all of
this was I didn't have
access to these kinds of
courses in my
school growing
up, and it wasn't
until I
was an adult
and living in
New York and
took kind of an
entry-level
class in 2014.
And I was inspired
to learn
these skills
and inspired to
understand kind
of how these
skills were rapidly
building
big companies
and solving
big problems,
and how this
superpower and
this language
of code worked.
I wanted to understand
that, and a lot
of young students
don't have
access to that
opportunity
opportunity.
But I'm really
excited to be
here today and
talk about why it's so
important.
RESHMA SAUJANI:
That's so great,
Karlie.
I can totally relate.
For me, I'm the
daughter of
refugees.
My parents came to this
country from Uganda
with nothing but an
engineering question
from and $10 in
their pockets.
When you ask
a 12-year-old
what she wanted to do, I
wanted to give
back to this
country that
literally saved
my parents' life.
I thought that would
be by running for
office and being
a public
servant.
I failed miserably
at that.
But as part of the
experience I
would go into
schools and computer
science
classes and
see lines and
lines of boys
trying to be
the next Mark
Zuckerberg or
the next Steve Jobs.
I keep thinking
to myself: Where
are the girls?
Because I wasn't a
coder, because this
wasn't my field,
it didn't
make sense to me.
But one thing I
did know was that
those jobs paid
really well.
As someone who
has worked
everything from bask-in
Robbins, good-paying
jobs
are the American dreams.
That inspired
me to start
Girls Who Code
and build it
as a movement
that teaches
and focuses
on underserved
girls.
Right now every day there
are people on the
streets, in Portland,
Kenosha, all across the
country who
are demanding
demanding racial
justice.
So much of good-paying
jobs
is connected to racial
justice, because we know
that the lack
of women and
people of color,
that's not
separate.
Tech equity is not
separate from pay
equity, which is not
separate from the
wealth
gap, the health
care gap,
police brutality.
This
pandemic has
disproportionately
affected
people of color.
Karlie,
you and I were
talking about
this yesterday.
When it comes to
the students who
went through our
programs this summer,
they are desperately
wanted to learn
how to code so they
have a chance at the
American dream.
This work and what
the Biden-Harris
administration is going
to do to further this
issue is so important.
>>Thank you, guys, so
much for the work.
I think what's
so wonderful
and I would love
for you to
talk about some of the
young people in the
program.
This is Grace.
She's teaching the police
chief in New Orleans
how to code.
Because the data has been
open for policing
and and
justice.
Wells, who was a
data scientist and
journalist from
a hundred
years ago around these
topics if you know about
her, and if
you don't know
who she is, look
her up, but
the way to right
or wrong is
shine a light
on the truth,
with arts, with
policy and
with data science
and tech.
What's wonderful
is Senator
Harris was part
of opening
policing data in San
Francisco and
in Dallas, but
her work was
part of the New
Orleans team.
It will allow
all of you to
roll up your
sleeves on the
code to help
with justice, with
challenges.
Can you share a little
bit about the kinds
of things -- a lot of
people are why would
people do this?
These are some of the
reasons why,
extraordinary
here owic I think so.
RESHMA SAUJANI:
Karlie and
I are like how
do we start?
Girls are change makers.
When you look at every
movement that's
been created
over the past couple of
years, build it's Black
Lives Matter, climate
change change, gun
control, it has been
led by young women and
girls.
We see that in our
program all the time.
One of my students when
we started in 2012, and
we taught over 300,000
girls and reached
millions and I am always
blown away by the things
they want to create and
the problems they want
to solve.
One of my students
created an algorithm to
detect whether a cancer
is benign or malignant
because her father
had cancer.
One of my students
created a tool because
she had been bullied at
school and there was a
girl in our community who
had committed suicide
because she was bullied
and she wanted to shine
a line on that issue.
I had a group of girls in
Atlanta Georgia build a
website to teach people
about black girls'
natural hair.
I recently this summer
had a student, Katrina,
who built 3-D print
printing for health care
workers in New
York City.
I could go on and on.
But this is why I think
the both of us and so
many of the other people
in solidarity, like
Kimberley Bryant, all of
these amazing people, we
do this because we
believe these young
people will literally
save this country,
because they care about
it and they're
compassionate and they're
constantly thinking
about what they can
do to support their
communities and
families.
>>Very much so.
Karlie, you and I were on
stage with someone
who was
10 or 11 at the
time, a new
filter for removing lead
from water for
flint and she
was working on
applying for
a patent and
trying to raise
money.
It was wonderful.
KARLIE KLOSS: There are
endless not only amazing
projects.
Our scholars have
built everything
from tack
tackling the
world's most
pressing issues,
whether it
be in racial justice or
politics or fashion or
entrepreneurial kinds of
ideas.
I think part of how
I know Girls
Who Code and
Code Pink, we
focus on --
Kode with Klossy
we focus on
creating immersive and
creative experiences
that is
empower our scholars to
realize how applicable
these
skills are to anything
you're passion
passionate
about, and just how
important that
shift and how
you teach it
can be to make
it more inclusive and
inviting for everyone to
realize the
role they can
have in these fields.
Speaking of kind of the
administration's role in
this, I think
heading into
this school year,
something
that I'm thinking a lot
about and I know Reshma
we talked about this, is
kind of the lack of
internet access and
appropriate equipment
that is going to
prevent a lot
of students
from engaging
with school
virtually.
To that point,
more than 12
million of the
55 million students who
were sent home at the
end of March didn't
have access to
broadband at
home, and just
how critical
that is, that
our administration is
committed to
solving this
problem on a
federal level.
Because that creates a
barrier to access these
learning experiences on
every level.
RESHMA SAUJANI:
That's right,
Karlie.
70 million American
children live in homes
without the internet.
7 million American
children
live in a home without a
computer device.
If we do
nothing, we
risk an entire
generation to
this pandemic
not because they
got sick or
not because
our hospitals
were at capacity
but because
they don't have
high-speed
internet.
That's why I love
Joe Biden's
plan, where he
clearly laid
out a strategy
of how to reopen
schools,
how to go to communities
that are being
the hardest
to reach.
Remote learning
can't be an oxymoron.
It has to mean
something.
We need a president
who will do
something about it,
and he certainly is.
>>Very much so.
One of the things I loved
was how he would look
for already had
solutions and lift them
up and create sharing.
For all the young STEAM
Americans with us
listening, there's a
lot of stuff solved.
Chattanooga has
the highest speed
internet in the western
hemisphere.
Bring it to
your town.
We can share.
America is full of
talent, including all of
you and we're relying
on you to do
that and to pull us to
some of the young people
we have three a amazing
folks who will add
questions and we want
everyone to meet them.
First up is Adrianna,
a rising senior at duke,
studying neuroscience
with a minor in
African-American studies,
a pre-med students
and plans to
attend medical
school after graduation,
also national
co-chair of
the black students
for Biden
and member of
the leadership
council.
After her we have
Nancy, a Florida
native and
first, Adrianna, can you
wave at everyone?
Nancy is
a Florida native and a
fifth-year PhD student.
In
chemical and biological
engineering.
She obtained an
undergraduate
question
from from MIT,
my school,
loving that, where she
worked studying
proteins and
living cells
and in the lab
developing ways
to key to
ionize water by shock
dialysis.
Her current
research is really
important
for climate solutions
and we
can ask her
about that and
many other things
medical.
And we have Morine, a
postdoc fellow at the
university of
Pennsylvania
in the scholars
program, a
nurse scientists who
received her
PhD from Duke
University in
the school of
nursing and her compass
factors that
perpetuate --
she earned her
masters in
nursing (inaudible) and
bachelor's in
nursing from
Boston college.
We welcome
them.
I'm going to turn
over to Adrianna for a
question.
ADRIANNA: Thank
you so much, Megan.
It is such an honor
to be here
with each and every
one of you.
My question is this: As
a black woman in STEM, I
owe a lot of
my inspiration
-- to STEAM,
rather -- to
women in the
field who had I
had the pleasure to be
taught and mentored by.
However, I also
recognize that I was
connected to movie
my female STEAM
mentors outside the
classroom and that in
fact I had very little
exposure to
diversity in
STEM throughout
elementary, middle
and high
school.
My question is: What
do you think needs to
change in our science
education system so more
young girls
and women are
inspired to
pursue STEAM?
KARLIE KLOSS: That's a
really important
question,
Adrianna.
Like you said, we
both didn't have
experience
or exposure
with computer
science and it
wasn't until
I was in my twenties
that I
sought it out.
The data really
underscores this
problem.
Only 26 per cent of
computing-related
jobs are held by
women, and that
number is actually
on the decline.
So I really believe
that to change this
we need to focus on a
number of things, but
certainly on expanding
STEAM education in K
through 12, both in
schools and through
programs like Girls Who
Code and Kode with
Klossy, and in my opinion
this is especially
vital in underserved
communities, where
access to resources
is even more
limited.
I can only imagine what
our world could look
like if we were able to
reach more young women
through mainstream
education earlier on in
their academic
lives lives.
>>One of the things that
Reshma I think you and
Karlie you guys
have proven
through the programs you
created early on in your
leadership that these
programs can scale.
So
what's been
incredible to
watch is as
the states and
cities pick this up, so
today Chicago, you can't
graduate without
learning code.
That's a big school
district.
And the great
state of Wyoming
has voted
that by 2023
all children
will have coding
computational
thinking and
computer science
throughout
their school
time, which is
wonderful.
RESHMA SAUJANI:
One of the things too I
think that as we all
remember under the
Obama-Biden administration,
as you know,
Megan, is that
we often would
come and say
what are you working on?
What can we do?
And that
convening, that
organizing,
is really missing.
I know a lot of us
have been doing
this work.
I see a lot of
shaking heads -- kind of
separately.
Girls Who Code,
we have 10,000 girls who
code clubs across the
country.
We started working with
state slips to get
these women until tech
spotlights.
There was this
huge poster of Katherine
Johnson there.
You cannot
be what you cannot see.
You saw her and
said I can do
that too.
We have the other
thing I think
is important
you can't change
what you
can't measure.
You have all
these computer science
classes.
In New York City
they're happening in the
wealthy schools,
in Bronx
and Brooklyn those kids
don't have exposure.
They
only have after-school
programming that
offers them
that.
So we've worked with
Republican and
Democratic govern
governors because we
didn't have a president
who was willing
to take this on
to say let's
measure women,
the numbers of women and
people of color in CS
classrooms.
Who's taking?
Who's benefiting
from these
classes?
Because you can't change
what you can't
measure.
It's been critical
I think, critically
important if
we want to get
-- reach underserved
communities.
>>Noteably,
women of color get left
behind the most most.
The work we need
to do to make
it clear the
extraordinary
heroic technical
work lots
of women of color
have done
through the history of
humanity, so
inclusion this
history,, Grace
Hopper, an
American who
invented coding
languages, or
aida Love lace
herself who invented the
idea of computer
science or
this idea of algorithms,
Darwin thought of our
history and
she thought of
our future.
It's
interesting
the times of A
AI because her
father was
Lord buy Ron
who was with
Mary Shelley
when she wrote
frank enstein.
Should we
raise the monster
or not?
It's important
for women,
all people, people
of color,
everybody, especially
people
in an intersectional
position, bring
forward your
coding and your tech and
your STEAM.
Be STEAM
powered in all
of your work,
which is really
important.
I'm going to
turn attention
to Nancy, soon
to be doctor.
NANCY: It's such an
amazing opportunity to
be here with you all.
My question is: As a PhD
student, my research
focuses on how different
fluids move through
rocks.
Like Megan said, it
has implications in
climate and energy.
Federal funding is
important in not
only funding research
at the university level
but it's also important
funding
graduate students
like me.
How will the campaign
prioritize funding
for research
research.development at
the university level
versus
industry, and
what kinds of
investments do you think
we need more of in the
research space and how
would you prioritize
different research
areas such as
finding more sustainable
energy sources versus
artificial intelligence,
for
example?
RESHMA SAUJANI: I think
we have more
amazing women
like you who will do
research in
diverse areas
when we have
more amazing
women and people
of color
graduating in CS or
CS-related degrees.
When we started Girls
Who Code, the
number of women
in computer
science at universities
hovered around
17, 18 per
cent.
Today that number is
almost in its
mid-20s, 30s
and sometimes
even 50s at
schools like MITIT and
that's because
some of the
work so many of us have
done.
That has led to more
ideas being
elevated, more
funding for
those ideas.
I think we have
to continue to
commit to diversity and
inclusion and continue
to push universities
to really
go out there
and seek out
women and people
of color.
I get frustrated because
imagine if a CS
department was like
a football team.
It seems we have
no problem
recruiting people for
football teams at
universities,
but we can't
close the gender
gap or find
more black and Latino CS
students.
I don't believe
that and that
doesn't feel
right.
Karlie, you and I
were talking about that
because both
of our partners
are in venture capital.
When you think about the
venture capital funding
that goes to women
and black
women, it's abysmal.
Less
than a hundred
black women
have received
seed capital.
That's unacceptable.
My
husband and
I started this
small fund to invest in
women of color.
Because we know their
ideas need to be
furthered.
One of the
companies we've
invested in,
what they do --
>>I love them.
>>What they've been doing
withing COVID-19 is
looking at the
concentration
of the virus in sewage
to estimate the number of
people that are infected
in that area and
they're doing the same
thing with opioid
epidemic.
When these women, what
they're creating and
building is incredible.
But right now
they don't have
access to funding and we
need to change that.
And I think this
administration will.
KARLIE KLOSS: I was going
to touch on a different
part of your question.
You had mentioned
AI.
I think AI has incredible
potential to
positively transform the
way we live and it's
already doing so
in many respects.
But there's this amazing
woman, I don't know if
you guys have heard of
her, you should look
into her work, Joy,
she founded this
organization called the
algorithmic justice
league, and she's
a researcher at M
MIT and she became
interested in studying
AI when she was
a grad student
and discovered some
facial analysis software
couldn't detect her
face until she
put on a white mask.
Her research has
covered large
gender and racial
bias in
prevalent AI systems.
As we
continue to
rely more and
more on AI, it's
vital that
we have a much better
understanding of the
exclusionary
side effects of
this kind of technology.
RESHMA SAUJANI:
Try being
black or brown
and using the
bathroom at
an airport and
whether the waterworks.
We're all shaking
our heads
because it's true.
There's so much
discrimination in
data sets right now.
Karlie, it's such an
important place
that we need
to shift and change.
>>That's why it's so
important to
have leadership
on the policy side who's
tech friendly
and fluent.
Civic tech, promoting it
forward is a wonderful
program for college age
people.
They thought we
could only work
in the big
companies and we saw you
guys and wanted
to work in
government and
non-profit
tech, this whole idea of
tech for good.
That's very important
and it's there and
you can be working on
policy.
For example, when
do these technologies,
where
are they stamped,
approved
and ready to
be rolled out?
When one group
has 99 per
cent recognition on face
technology or
when one group
is at 07 per
cent or when
everybody is included?
This
is a new behavior.
Codea
chrome had the
same problem.
This is ridiculous.
We all
need you you.
It's a youth
movement.
The only other
thing I would add that I
think is valuable,
Nancy, is
that the United
States is
extraordinary in what I
could call our research
enterprise, our national
science foundation, our
National Institutes of
Health, the president's
council on science and
technology we
worked on with
President Obama.
We have a powerhouse
in the national
academies and it's an
apprentice journey
master
path and you are on it
because you are in the
graduated school side.
We watched the
young people all
the way through to the
undergrads, and the
post-docs, we're
going to
hear from a postdoc next
that we've hand this had
baton from the days of
Benjamin Franklin
through
our science enterprise.
President Washington
himself
in in the first
state of the
union said there's
nothing
which better
deserves your
patronage than
science and
literature,
knowledge, in
every country
of the sewer
sewerrest basis of
happiness.
Fake news
knowledge, we
have to make
sure we get the
right people
in the game.
I'd love to
move now to Morine.
You're incredible
because you're
connecting all worlds
together which women do.
Men do too, but
women really
do.
Of all our interests,
computer science
and dance,
whatever it is.
Please tell
us your question.
MORINE:
Thank you so much.
I echo the sentiments
of my
colleagues.
So great to be surrounded
by such brilliant
and strong women today.
As my bio suggests and my
Haitian immigrant family
jokes, I am a
professional student.
I'm going on my fourth
question from.
I've had a really
great time in
all the institutions
that
I've been.
But as I reflect on
my times at all my
different schools,
I really
think about
my time at the
state university
and HBCU in
North Carolina.
That was
definitely a
space where I
felt the most
empowered as a
black woman and a black
woman science and just
seeing the culture and
environment.
I often would compare
the different
experiences
that I had at
those schools.
There was no difference
in ideas ideas.
There was no difference
in the students.
There was no difference
in the caliber
and quality of
faculty faculty.
Even though I'm a little
biased because my
husband, brother
and sister
are all faculty
members at
HBCU.
But I did notice there
were differences of
fund funding
and resources.
So my question is geared
towards what
aspect of the
Biden-Harris
investment plan
for education, with
particular focus to the
minority serving
institutions, when
considering Biden's
plan to
invest $70 billion in
historically minority
serving institutions,
how do
you all foresee this
investment in
packing the
institutions
and what ways
do you see this
investment
providing young
women and
girls of color
with exposure
to and pathways
into a range
of STEAM and other vital
fields?
KARLIE KLOSS: I'll jump
in first.
Dr Gaiters, it is
an honor to be
in this Zoom
with you as all the
students, I'm inspired
by what you've
accomplished and can
only imagine what you'll
continue to do in the
years ahead.
But to your question,
it's hard to even
imagine the incredible
impact of a $70 billion
investment in minority
serving institutions
would
have.
But in terms of the
opportunities
it can provide
young women who may not
otherwise be exposed to
STEAM and the
ripple impact
that has on their
lives and
families and
communities and
in our organization,
Kode
with Klossy,
the minority of
our scholars are BIPOC.
A key part of
our mission is
introducing them to a
diverse range of role
models.
Like Reshma said,
the saying, you can't be
what you can't see.
We truly believe that.
There's no doubt that
we need a more
coordinated and
concentrated investment
to open these
pathways up to
more women of
color.
of --
RESHMA SAUJANI: There's
still so much work that
needs to be done
to root out
the bias that
exists in many
of these companies
to get
them to hire
and to actually
see black excellence.
I think so much
of what has
happened in the
streets, in
the conversation we've
having since
George Floyd's
murder is for people to
recognize and see black
excellence.
So to have an
administration
that's actually going
to invest in
it, and invest in
historically black
universities that have
forever -- Kamala
Harris, as
Karlie said.
There is no
better role model
for me, as
a South Asian
woman, to see
her in that spot
and to see
what she's going to do.
So
I think we finally
will have
an administration
that will
do something and see the
inequity that
exists in our
society and invest in
communities and help
continue to invest
in black
excellence.
>>Thank you, all of our
questioners.
Exactly.
Our
tribal colleges,
historically
black colleges,
minority serving
institutions, are filled
with talent
in the faculty
and the students.
So I love
that focus.
It's going to be
extraordinary what
happens with that.
We have to get
these guys into
office.
Having had the personal
chance of working
with both of them, vice
president Biden in the
White House and of course
I'm originally was
living in San Francisco
for a long time, so I
know Senator Harris from
her earlier work.
These guys understand
team,
they understand
technology,
as well as all the other
fields.
They really know
how to pull the
best talent
together.
As Reshma was talking
about, Americans are
great and get things
done and somewhere in
this country someone
is fixing
something.
If you can find them
and accelerate them
with policy programs
that really take the
diversity of America,
the federation we
are, the United
States of
America and all of that
breadth and realize
that all
of the disciplines
belong
and for all
of you guys to
be here is really
wonderful
to have that
STEAM power.
One thing I'd
shout out is
one of the milestones
this
week, the hundredth
anniversary of
women's vote,
so we've been
reflecting on
the voting act and these
milestones we've hit.
From
the 1800s, the
declaration
of sentiments, which is
missing and I launched a
search for it, so we're
looking for it,
the founding
document from
Seneca falls
that was a policy
piece.
I
encourage you
to read the
last sentiment,
because it
talks about a systemic
destruction
of confidence
that's coming at us.
And
they wrote that in 1848.
When you feel that
personally personally,
just
know we're all here.
Just remember the
Zoom call or
whatever it is.
We're in community
and we know we
belong, we've always
belonged and we've been
doing that for
a long time.
What's wonderful is the
Biden-Harris team knows
that and is really to put
policy and the full
force of the American
government into
accelerating this
American talent for our
future.
Every time we have a tech
innovation job we get
five more jobs, according
to research.
We want that all over
America in every town
and city.
RESHMA SAUJANI: I'm
staring at your shirt
and thinking
about one of
the big differences
I think
about in terms of CS
education is that in the
Obama Biden
administration
they used to
call it CS for
all.
In the Trump
administration
they changed
it to CS for kids.
It's a subtle but
important change,
because I think it's
been a signal to what's
happened
over the past
four years and
whose life has not been
prioritized.
There's so much
at stake in this
election.
Karlie and I have
students who are
black, brown, trans,
gay, Muslim,
straight, and
we can over
and over again
they've been
attacked and their lives
have been put
at risk, their
education has
been put at
risk.
This election is so
personal I think
to both of
us and so important
to both
of us because
our kids, our
students, are
our everything.
So we've got to
get to work.
Because I think
we see the
consequences of the
American dream only
being available for some
and not all of us
when we have leaders who
are in power that don't
care about all of us.
>>I really appreciate you
adding that.
I think that
it's also very
important to
remember also
you guys are
all helping on
the campaign.
I hope you will do more.
If you are STEM people,
there are computer and
network things
to be doing.
I don't know
if you've seen
the video project
Elmo of
the technology
built in 2016
to inflect propaganda
on the
American people straight
through their
screens and
now they call
it the death
star.
There's all this
messaging and good
Americans are not
hearing each other.
That's the technologies
that we build are being
used for that.
It's not kind and
it's not fair.
It's not knowledge.
So I hope you guys will
also think about
very clever ways as the
youth leaders and youth
movement in STEM and
STEAM of these tools
that you have to make
sure the elections are
safe and secure, that
people are getting
information, that
we're using clever
ride-sharing, whatever
it is you all think
of, ingenious things.
Remember you have
each other.
Technology in its best
form is about love,
like discovery and
curiosity, how does
this work, and
STEM like the
universe, it's
about service
and what can
we solve, what
can we engineer.
It's about how can
we help others with
medical things?
And it's about
community.
How do we help each
other discover our
greatest talent and work
together to have a
better living planet and
community that we want?
With that, I'm going to
turn us -- thank you,
Reshma, Karlie, thank
you our question team,
thank you all,
everybody here.
Olivia Brochu are you
there?
You are I understand
the Michigan
field director.
We're not anything
if we're
not local and we're not
talking to each other.
Every vote counts
and every
one of you who
are working
locally, it's all about
personal contacts,
digital
contact and what
you can do.
So you're the
field rep who
can tell us
more about Joe
App and how we
can download.
Thank you, everybody.
LINDA RIVAS:
Thank you to
all the amazing power
powerful women
on this call.
It's an honor
to be a part
of it today.
I am the
regional field
direct for
our program in Michigan
where we are focused on
young Americans,
so folks
who are ages
up to 35 years
old.
In Michigan, Donald
Trump in 2016
won by 100,000
-- I'm sorry,
not 100,000 --
10,704 votes.
That's a number
we say here a lot
because I deeply believe
those votes will be
found with young
people and with
students.
So that's why we're
focusing so much on
young Americans
this election.
One of the ways we are
using technology to
reach people
during COVID is
through our really awe
awesome exciting
app, vote
Joe.
I'm going to go ask
all of you including our
panelists to
download that
app by texting the word
youth to 30330.
We're going
to take a minute
for you all
to do that.
Again, you're going
to text the word -- I
see Megan grabbing her
phone.
Thanks so much.
Text the word youth to
30330.
I will give you all
a minute to do that.
While we are
waiting for it
to download,
I am going to
make a little
plug for you
all to make
your plans to
vote today.
It is really
important.
We are planning
out how we're
going to vote,
are we going
to be voting
absentee, do we need to
request the ballot, how
we're going to prepare
to vote on November 3.
I ask that you all take a
moment to plan that out
as well.
And you can check your
voter registration at I
will vote.com.
When you get the app open
it will prompt you to
go there as well and you
can make sure that's all
up to date with your
current address.
If you need to vote by
mail this year, we
really ask that you
request your ballot
literally today.
Do it right now, because
it can take a while for
those to come
in the mail.
Request your ballot
as soon as possible.
Once you're in the app
you can see some
exciting updates that we
can text folks and text
our friends to register
as well.
Now that you everyone has
their apps download
downloaded, I'm going to
ask you to open it up.
I'll pull it up on
my phone as well.
Once you're in the app
you can sync it with
your contacts so that
you're able to text
folks.
You can be on
the home page.
It will ask you to
register to vote.
There will be some
prompts there.
I'll ask that you scroll
down to the blue button
that's going to say text
your friend or message
your friend, something
like that.
You can click that.
You can then check off
the friend that you want
to text.
I am going to text my
mom, my friend Abby.
You can choose who
you want to text.
And then go through there
and there will be some
helpful prompts to go
through and text folks
to register to vote.
Once you go through
there, you can commit
that data.
You can click send data
and then we will be able
to find out who is
supporting Joe, who
needs to register to vote
and get all of that
good info.
If you're in Michigan, we
definitely ask you to
join our team as well.
Thank you so much.
That's my plug for
talking to our friends
about registering
to vote.
