Tech Age Girls (TAG)

Project Overview

Project Overview

Contact Information

For more information about the TAG project, please contact tag@irex.org.

Tech Age Girls (TAG) is an innovative project that utilizes technology to identify and develop future women leaders in places where girls often do not have the same opportunities as boys. In cooperation with local NGOs, IREX competitively selects a group of young women who demonstrate the potential for leadership and a commitment to sharing their enthusiasm, talent, and skills with their peers. Originally begun in Uzbekistan in early 2005, the project has since expanded to Azerbaijan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine.

Goals

To provide training, support, and encouragement to a competitively selected cadre of socially active young women, promoting an expanded female role in their communities and in the field of information technology
To facilitate the contribution of young women’s voices to public discussion on critical issues and increase the level of content from girls’ perspectives in local languages on the Internet

Project Phases

The project lasts for one year in three distinct phases.

Phase One lasts up to six months, during which participants are selected and strengthen their IT skills while forming an online community based on a series of online events.

Phase Two brings the highest achievers to a one- to two-week in-person workshop in a major city, where girls participate in leadership training and meet influential, national-level women leaders.

Phase Three begins when participants return to their communities, remaining linked in to a network of young women leaders who are implementing local projects and training their peers in key IT skills.

Upon completion of the first year, participants become mentors for successive groups of Tech Age Girls, enhancing project sustainability and spreading its benefits even wider.

TAG girls

Standard Project Steps

Applicants submit essays, create and update personal blogs, and volunteer in their communities.
Entries are reviewed by a selection committee of project partners and evaluated based on their level of commitment and consideration of discussion topics; semi-finalists are then selected.
Semi-finalists complete introductory courses in IT, Web design, and leadership. Meanwhile, they continue to update their blogs, participate in bi-weekly online forums on women’s issues, correspond weekly with mentors, and plan and lead volunteer initiatives.
Semi-finalists design a website about a youth leader in their community.
Finalists are selected based on the impact of their projects and their demonstrated potential to serve as local leaders.
Finalists attend a two-week workshop in the capital on advanced Web design, leadership, problem solving, and project design. During their second week, they participate in a mini-internship at an IT firm, international organization, or government body.
When they return home, finalists implement the projects they designed at the workshop and foster the development of the next year’s group of Tech Age Girls.

Funding for TAG has been provided through the Global Connections and Exchange Program, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State; the USAID-funded Internet Access and Training Program (IATP); the Regional Library Information Centers program, a project of the US Embassy to Azerbaijan; and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Contact Information

For more information, e-mail TAG@irex.org.