Meet the female changemakers looking to shape the future of tech
Twenty-nine young women from the EU, the Western Balkans and Ukraine have been at a summer bootcamp in female leadership, learning how to shape and lead the digital future.
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00:00Meet two young women setting their sights on shaping the digital future.
00:10Hi, I'm Cassandra Sovagandela. I'm from Valencia, Spain, and I'm deeply passionate about seeing more women leading in the tech industry globally.
00:19Hi, my name is Milana Bulat, and I'm from Odessa in Ukraine. My dream is to see more young girls encouraged to study in technology.
00:28Milana and Cassandra are in Warsaw for a summer boot camp in female leadership.
00:39Twenty nine students are here in all representing the EU, the Western Balkans and Ukraine.
00:46The summer school for female leadership in the digital age is organized by tech company Huawei.
00:53We need to close the gender gap in tech. That's something that is going to serve humanity as a whole and not just the tech sector.
00:59Women have to be involved in creating technology. Women have to be involved in saying what future technologies should look like.
01:09Here in the EU, women continues to be outnumbered by men in the ICT sector, making up less than one in five of the workforce last year.
01:20Bulgaria have the highest share of women employed as ICT specialists, while the Czech Republic have the lowest.
01:28These young changemakers hope to help close that gap.
01:32We need to reassure women that they have very interesting points of view.
01:38They have a lot of things to add and they should start believing more in themselves.
01:43As I was talking to one of the panelists yesterday, she mentioned that if she as a woman fails, all women fail.
01:50When if a man fails, he failed. So by putting these women up there in a place of power, we're giving away for other women to follow.
02:02From negotiation and public speaking to AI, ethics and entrepreneurship.
02:09They're all covered here with expert mentors coming from business, politics, education and beyond.
02:16I would love to see more women who study philosophy or women who study law take up a career in tech.
02:22To actually have good tech, you need diversity both in terms of background and thought, not just more women doing computer science.
02:31Former leadership school students are also back to help inspire the next generation.
02:37Janana Salamovic from Bosnia and Herzegovina is among them.
02:42I co-hosted a session about robotics. It is a topic very close to me because I just got my bachelor's in electrical engineering.
02:50So it is very important for me to empower young girls so they know they can do something in this field, in other fields.
02:58And they have this platform for all of that.
03:01Georgina Toronyi from Hungary is also a leadership school graduate.
03:06When I was attending the school, I was this really shy girl. And when I returned home, I was full of ambitions.
03:13So I decided to switch my jobs. I left my intern job and started working full time in a financial tech company.
03:20It's something I'm really enjoying and something I feel good at.
03:24It's the final day and the students are preparing to pitch on stage.
03:29Cassandra and Milana's group have come up with an app to help women plan activities around their energy levels.
03:37I'm feeling a bit excited and a bit nervous, but keeping in mind that I've been working with all of these girls, that kind of helps me feel a bit less nervous.
03:47Our solution is an app to help women manage their energy levels.
03:53We went from nothing to a problem, project, solution, presentation, speakers. It was a lot of work and we're very proud of ourselves.
04:06After a packed week of learning, the school's wrapping up with a goodbye gala.
04:13Our great president and proposed queen is Cassandra Savakandela.
04:22This experience has changed each one of us. Not just on a personal level, I've also gotten to meet so many amazing and inspiring women.
04:31It's been an amazing experience.
04:36The Top Award of Future Leader goes to an emotional Milana.
04:41The most thing I'm proud of right now is the fact that I am the first Ukrainian winner in this academy and I'm very happy to represent my country.
04:50I think my family is going to be very proud of me.