2 Years with Generation Girl from Every Perspective
A chronological story of my experience with one (super!) cool non-profit organization that went from me mistakenly thinking it’s a Barbie website (generationgirl.com 🥴) to one that I owe so much to for significantly impacting my passion and personal growth! 💙
To everyone who contributed to my Gen G experience: Thank you. Really.
This article is dedicated to the whole Gen G community and everyone who’s interested in joining it! I will be sharing my story from all perspectives and/or roles I have been involved within Gen G and my main takeaways from them ✨
*I titled all sections of this article for easier reading, so feel free to skim to pick and choose which sections you’re interested in
Talkshow Attendee (Dec 2018)
Context:
My brother (huge shoutout to him) sends me this link mistakenly generationgirl.com that led me to a Barbie website and was immediately disinterested by it. Then he corrected the link and added this poster asking if I’d like to join this with him because he finds it interesting. I was still in high school and I had never really had any experience in joining seminars or talks like these. There was never a seminar that I’d voluntarily go to, it’ll usually be for some school event. Also, back then, I didn’t think that seminars could be a place that could provide so many valuable insights. I underestimated the usefulness of a seminar or talkshow.
To add, I was never really actively searching about current issues back then let alone about the gender gap issue in STEM, because all I cared about then were my IB exams🥴. So since I was free that day, I thought why not? To join this open-to-public and free seminar, all I had to do was submit a question in relation to women in STEM. And so I did. Little did I know, I would be involved in the Gen G community for the next 2 years ever since!
At the end of the sharing session by the panelists, the moderator selected 3 questions from the registration form to be directed to the panelists. I was super surprised to see my name show up and my question getting asked.
What I Learned:
Her answer and the talk in general genuinely triggered my realization that there is an issue currently that women are facing in the tech industry. Even I myself, felt it at a much smaller scale back in school where the number of girls even participating in STEM subjects are much less than boys.
Some of her answers to my question:
“To practice coding, what’s important is to just start first! (#MulaiAjaDulu)…then when you face a hard programming problem, instead of being stressed, be excited, be ambitious, in Tokopedia, we have a saying to get things done which goes: make it happen, make it better…the greater the challenge, the more satisfaction there is when you finish it. To overcome the stereotype, it starts with each one of us being really good at it so that we can change the perception of females in tech. And of course, supporting each other too and become good role models and inspiration for the next generation”
I am so glad I decided to join this with my brother 😊 Otherwise, I would have missed out on the many opportunities that this one exposure to Gen G would have led me to. Perhaps, I wouldn’t even know Gen G existed in the first place! At the time, they had around 2000+ Instagram followers already.
side note: I was also super happy that my question got answered because I got some goodies from Tokopedia that included cookies🥰
See if you can spot my cameo in Gen G’s first youtube channel video for this event. (Hint 👀: go to 0:48 and 0:53)
My Main Takeaways:
Trying and exploring new opportunities never hurts, you can always learn something from it.
There’s still a lack of female representation in the STEM industry
Summer Club Rookie (Jul 2019)
This was the peak dive to the Gen G community. It was Gen G’s first ever Summer Club event and their second holiday club. Undoubtedly, this experience is up there in the list of my “post-high school graduation and pre-university” summer highlight!
Context:
Gen G’s Summer Club is open for girls age 12 to 17 years old only and lasted for 6 weeks. Every week there were 2 different STEM courses you can choose from — both courses are available in Indonesian and English. The courses from weeks 1 to 3 are the same as the ones from weeks 4 to 6. The participants, a.k.a. rookies, were free to join any week as long as the classes weren’t full yet. I joined for the last two weeks (week 5 and 6) and choosing to learn Computer Science 101 (week 5) and UI/UX Design (week 6). My brother also joined in too as a volunteer and “part”-mentor for the first two weeks, which goes to show that the Gen G community isn't exclusive to just women, we have lots of male champions too!🤩
From Monday to Friday, the rookies get to go to WeWork co-working space to learn the courses of their choice from 10 AM to 3 PM. The lunch is also provided and we would always have lunch together outside of the classrooms to mingle with the other rookies. Every Wednesdays, they get a special and different activity to do outside of the co-working space. The activities could be an office tour to expose them to real-life working environments or a community and service work. For the two weeks I joined, I got the chance to be toured around the Gojek and Tokopedia offices. On every Tuesdays and Thursdays, the rookies also get to have workshops and/or chill lunch sharing sessions with role-model-worthy female guest speakers. I was able to enjoy a self-defense workshop at that time. The guest speakers included people from various fields of work, banking, global brand ambassadors, VC, tech, fitness, and etc. For example, @alymaharani, Crystal Widjaja, @clare_vee, @saktidin, and so many more! On every last day of the week (Friday), the rookies get to present their final projects to their friends and families too. The final projects I made were a computer guessing game using Python and a milk delivery app.
I was extremely nervous when I first came in to the co-working space because, I thought this was going to be a serious type of tech lesson and that everyone around me are experts at coding already. However, all these nerves were gone as soon as Kak Nadine (founder of Gen G) just immediately made a speech to welcome all the rookies during the opening session in the most cheerful, positive, and welcoming manner. Also, the other rookies were all very warm and welcoming too! They immediately engaged in genuine and interesting conversations with anyone and accepted everyone with open arms. Since then, I learned that I wanted to make people feel that same warmth when conversing with me, just like how I felt when the community did to me. Just like that, many new friendships were made! So many of us rookies still keep in contact with each other decided to hang out for lunch, movie, etc. together afterwards. At the time, Gen G had increased their reach and have about 4,000+ Instagram followers.
What I Learned:
What I love most about Gen G’s Summer Club is that it really is not just like any other ordinary after school lessons, it’s so much more than that. Their side activities such as the lunch sharing sessions, workshops, tours, and presentations are half what makes the program so fun! The other half is certainly the supportive community itself (coordinators, volunteers, mentors and rookies) who literally are very accepting, friendly, and cheerful! These activities are all the ones that help nurture the basic soft-skills required for a future leader: problem solving, critical thinking, compassion, confidence and communication. Ultimately, fulfilling Gen G’s vision and mission. To add, the supportive community truly is key to the positive vibe that Gen G creates where it encourages everyone to learn from your own mistakes and maximize your potential.
Specifically about the guest speaker sessions, it made me realize that these people are doing great things in their field despite not getting as much fame as the top inspirational females up there like Michelle Obama, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, etc. who are cool too, obviously, but sometimes can mislead us into thinking that we need to have a huge platform first to do great things. Making it seem unattainable and thus, demotivating us. What I love about these sessions is that they diffuse the tension of how hard it is to get there and be transparent to the girls about the struggles that they had to face and how they grew up to be Indonesian female leaders, and so, making them much more relatable. Hence, encouraging the girls that they too can achieve great things too given their own unique backgrounds and current platforms!
Speaking of community, it was really nice to be exposed into an environment that’s outside of my usual high school circle. Because when I was still in school, I’m always stuck in this same bubble which defines how I see the world around me — which is indeed a very limited and narrow view. Joining Gen G’s community really helped me to become more open-minded when viewing new friendships and the world around me. Listening to the stories coming from different ages, backgrounds, cities, and types of schools (international, national, home school, etc.) allowed me to learn about insightful opportunities and struggles that I have never knew of before. I enjoy getting to know these stories because it’s actually inspiring to hear their perspective, what they’ve achieved and what they’ve went through! Which brings me to another reason why I appreciate Gen G a lot: the program is non-discriminant of your education or financial background! The holiday clubs are welcomed to and free for all middle/high school girls who are just genuinely interested in learning STEM ❤️
On a more personal note, I remember after the end of the every week, some of the girls would be cryinggg (out of gratitude and tears of joy) because the fun-filled week was over! I cried too because of not only that but because, Gen G in general have inspired me to realize that theres such a bigger world around me to care about and also learned how to better take care of myself along the way. 🥺 I also learned to be more confident when meeting new people which at the end, helped me in making new friends — a skill necessary as I was going to go to university soon!
My Main Takeaways:
When you present yourself in a warm, welcoming, and positive manner during conversations and there’ll be a high chance that the same energy would be reciprocated
A supportive community will bring significant impact to one’s growth
There are so many people who have done amazing things but, doesn’t necessarily have to be famous for it
It’s one thing to be taught how to be open-minded and think critically, but it’s only useful when you expose yourself to new things and practically apply it
“Follow your curiosity not your passion” — Kak Claire, banker at DBS and trainer at RIDE
Winter Club Mentor (TA) & Volunteer (Dec 2019)
This time, I am witnessing the holiday club from the opposite perspective to the rookie, a mentor and volunteer! This was also the last offline Gen G event I went to 😢
Context:
In Gen G, any previous rookie are automatically allowed to register to be a volunteer in the next holiday clubs. I originally signed up to be a volunteer for their second Winter Club in December of 2019 but the coordinators offered me to be a Teaching Assistant (TA) to the mentors of their Web Development Class (English) instead. I was super excited with that offer and I couldn’t wait to see the club from a different perspective this time! While I wasn’t assisting the mentors to teach the class, I would still help out with some of the logistics of the event.
Gen G’s Winter Club has a similar format to their previous summer club. The only difference is that the winter club only lasts for 2 weeks instead of 6. At the time, I was able to join only for the first week. I was tasked to help out the 2 mentors in the class just incase some of the rookies have some additional questions regarding the topic (Web Development using HTML, CSS and Javascript). At the end of everyday, we usually tell the rookies to fill in a “happy form” which basically is a feedback form to know what we could improve on. The results of these forms are usually discussed during the retrospective sessions at the end of the day.
As mentors/volunteers we are responsible for building a positive environment for the rookies. This means that we are actively encouraging them to participate in class, converse with them during break times, and basically getting to know them as friends too. In this way, we are not pressuring the rookies into a hierarchical environment and make sure everything is chill. This is so that they aren’t afraid to voice out their thoughts and concerns — instilling a culture that their (specifically, girls) opinions matter too.
What I Learned:
I appreciate that Gen G enforces a strong feedback culture as a means for improvement. The feedback forms that I, as a rookie, had to fill in and now as a mentor/volunteer got to see is very important because, it highlights the pain points of the club that could still be better. The great thing of being a mentor/volunteer as an ex-rookie is that I develop a much bigger appreciation of the hard work and effort that goes into making the club run smoothly and still create a fun time for the rookies! Thus, ultimately, making it way more rewarding to know that I have made a contribution in making the club a good experience for the rookies; even if I helped them in the smallest possible way — like explaining answers to their questions regarding their understanding of the topic.
Seeing the rookies increasingly understand the topic better, develop their projects, and become more confident as we go along the week was very inspiring. They’re so young but so capable of making websites, apps, animations, etc. that I myself haven’t even done is very fulfilling and satisfying. It reassured to me that we have so much good potential in the next generation. These girls that were nurtured by Gen G will surely go out in the world to do great things. I see some of them already have their own online portfolios, startups, etc. Which invetiably goes to show that, there are many young girls who can maximize their potential (in tech or otherwise) but just needs the right access, support and tools to do so.
My Main Takeaways:
The Gen G team works really hard to ensure the club runs smoothly yet creating a fun and educational experience for the rookies
“There are lots of girls in Indonesia that already has the creativity and skills but they lack in the confidence and support system that will push them to do something incredible” — Kak Nadine in her podcast with Kartini Teknologi.
Summer Club Event Intern (Feb — Jun 2020)
Thank goodness to this digital age, Gen G was still able to have their Summer Club event held online despite the pandemic. Also, because of technology, I was still able to contribute to help around with the event remotely.
Context:
I invited a really good friend of mine, Flo, to come join the Gen G community as a volunteer for the previous winter club. We were ecstatic to get the offer message from Kak Janice (founder of Gen G) to still help around for Gen G’s 2020 Summer Club! We were told to help invite a few speakers to be the guest speakers during the sharing sessions. I thought that the hard work by the Gen G team that I saw as a mentor/volunteer was a lot, this was much more than that! Getting to see just a glimpse of the efforts placed into developing the program made me even more grateful for Gen G’s existence as a whole.
I chose to help invite two guest speakers: the founder of Rumah Faye (Faye Simanjuntak) and co-founder and Head of PR from Ubah Stigma (Asaelia Aleeza and Sasya Natasanthi). This is because, I believe that Faye’s awareness for social issues at an early stage and Ubah Stigma’s advocacy for changing society’s perspective on mental health would give lots of benefits and useful insights for the rookies.
What I Learned:
Despite the Summer Club this year being held online, I was really glad that the coordinators were still able to create a program that was just as fruitful for the rookies as if it were offline. Though, unfortunately, the pandemic did take away the more deeper sense of community that the offline Summer Club had because we got to meet each and interacti with other in person in and outside of class. Nevertheless, they have put in so much effort already to make sure that the message and projects are still delivered well. Given Gen G’s reach by now, I am sure that they still have made an impact to these new/ continuing rookies!
My Main Takeaways:
“Explore yourself: “If I didn’t care about success/money/parents/friends, waht would I be doing in life right now?” to find out what makes just you happy” — Kak Felicia Aluwi, VP of Marketing at Halodoc
“Remember that you can’t change the world if you’re not at your best. Go out of your comfort zone, but remember that it’s okay to be tired. Don’t stop fighting.” — Faye Simanjuntak, Founder of Rumah Faye
“Being persistent in moving towards our goal is key to see real change happen” — Chaya Sabina, Leader of Bye Bye Plastic Bag Jakarta
Electives Rookie (Aug — Sep 2020)
This time, I got to experience what it’s like to be an online participant!
Context:
Electives is basically another program by Generation Girl that have workshops revolving around STEM subjects too but open to all girls above 18 years old! It’s a very similar system to their holiday clubs, but the only difference is that this one requires a registration fee. Some of the electives classes lasts for weeks some are only a one-time class, we are free to choose which courses we want to enroll in. Electives sometimes also include one-time workshops or sharing sessions!
What I Learned:
It amazes me how despite it being online, really the quality of the lessons I’ve learned doesn’t change as long as we have the right mentors and tools! There was so much that I learned through online that now I have a nested page in my Notion to compile all of them. It would be too lengthy for me to share it one by one here😅
One of the highlights is definitely the one in collaboration with Gojek’s Go-Academy. Aligning with their work culture, I truly appreciate their mentor’s emphasis on always giving feedback. They really make sure that we understand the topic and would genuinely dedicate their time to slowly teach the rookies step by step on how the code works. Even though the hassle of online mode where we have to take turns sharing screens and all, you can still see that these mentors care about and love the work their doing, and are very willing to teach. The general list of what I was able to learn included: applied data science, programming using Ruby, and crafting a better CV and Cover Letter.
I will jump straight into my favorite and most significant quotes from the mentors I’ve learned for this one:
My Main Takeaways:
“Consistency in effort will lead to a compounding effect in the future” — Mas Iqbaal, Engineer at Gojek
“Your point of differentiation will always be your unique ideas. You are more than a bucket of skills. Treating your career as a repository of skills will make you a commodity. Your ideas and thoughts are what will make you unique” — Kak Sean and Kak Peter, founders of Edukita
“Contribute to open source projects, self-market yourself, so that you can stand out as much as possible for outbound recruitments” — Kak Renata, Product Manager at Gojek
Overall and What’s Next?
Recently, it’s really nice and rewarding to see that my friends and family are also increasingly showing interest in joining Gen G’s events too. Expanding not only Gen G’s network but also, the awareness of their cause! For now, I am honestly very grateful to be working closer with the coordinators as a part of their Wonder Women team🥺❤️
I am also so proud of how far Gen G has come and the future of Gen G that’s to come. Seeing it grow from 2000+ followers to now having more than 18,000+ is amazing! Not to mention also Gen G being awarded Her World’s Women of the Year 2020! But what’s more touching to me is to witness their growth from every perspective while I myself was growing along with them too! Gen G constantly improving whilst I constantly try to better myself too. It’s definitely the mindset, the applications, the network, learned from the whole experience that affected my growth. As if this article wasn’t long enough but I can still get further into the specific opportunities I wouldn’t have come across if I have never met the Gen G community (That’s a story for next time 😉).
To think, most of the new opportunities I was able to gain could be traced back to an ex-rookie or mentor who shared their experience or story with me. The type of content I consume and create now positively changes due to my involvement in Gen G. It’s mostly all revolving around the theme of self-discovery, social issue awareness, the importance of community, and of course, growth! I also discovered my new found interest in the UI/UX field too because of Gen G! I love how Gen G exposes school students (me being one of them) to more of what’s to come in their future, be it working environment, their passion, etc. at a much earlier age. I am literally one product of Gen G’s significant impact and I am sure there are so many others out there who’ve gained the same things as I did!
Now I can actually see the even magnified details, thoughts and commitment, done to make the best experience possible for the community within the team! I am still starting out my journey to help Gen G even more from behind the scenes and just always looking forward to their future events and the people they’ve impacted. Gen G has helped me discover a possible new goal of mine and an issue that I would love to contribute in solving! This is such an invalueable experience to me and I’ve still got a long way to go to make even bigger contributions to help nurture future female leaders in STEM!
Thank you Generation Girl! 🥰
