Girl Scouts patches. They’re an iconic part of the organization, allowing young women across the United States to demonstrate their skill and knowledge in a variety of fields. In recent years, the Girl Scouts of America have been taking stronger steps to encourage curious young ladies to enter STEM fields. Now, PlayStation’s Santa Monica Studio will be working with Women in Games International (or WIGI) and the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles to provide a workshop for young game developers that will let them earn their very own video game patch.
Taking place on September 24th and October 1st, the workshop plans to give the Los Angeles area’s Girl Scouts “the opportunity to learn what it’s like to work in the video game industry from a professional, create a physical prototype, digital prototype, test their designs and more,” according to PlayStation’s Santa Monica Studio. The program, which was led by WIGI, hopes to bring the patch into national Girl Scouts chapters by creating an official Girl Scouts of the United States of America video game badge.
“By creating a STEM-aligned video game patch program for Girl Scouts, we’re helping young women see what opportunities are open to them in these fields,” Women in Games International noted in a Santa Monica Studio press release. “WIGI promotes diversity in the video game industry, and spearheading this effort means that women have more opportunities to be better represented in the next generation of video game creators.”
The initiative isn’t the first to encourage young girls to enter the games industry. From Girls Make Games to the Game Developers Conference’s Scholarship program, a variety of organizations have been supporting young women of all ages across North America, encouraging them to create and design their own games. Hopefully, the Santa Monica workshop is just the beginning of a longer project within the Girl Scouts to foster the future’s female game designers.
