Baheen Huzan is hoping to get more young girls interested in computer science and Girl Scouts.
Cherry Hill High School East rising sophomore Baheen Huzan may only be a high school student, but she’s determined to be a mentor for young girls in her community.
A Girl Scout for the past eight years, Baheen received her Silver Award on May 21 for a project where she encouraged young girls to get involved in the male-dominated field of computer science. Her goal isn’t just to get girls interested in computers, however. Her goal is to help build a new generation of strong, hard-working women for the future.
Computer science has been Baheen’s passion for a number of years. She participated in a national computer science competition for middle school girls in 2015 and 2016 called ProjectCSGirls and finished in second place last year.
The competition allowed Baheen to network with other girls her age who love computer science. Baheen admits she has struggled to find girls in her community with her same interests. There is also been a lack of women working in computer science professionally. According to National Public Radio, only 20 percent of computer programmers in the United States were female as of 2013.
Understanding the need to get young girls interested in computers, Baheen’s Silver Award project was to create a four-day workshop for girls ages 7 to 11 at her local mosque, GCLEA, last summer. In the workshop, the young girls learned the basics of building a robot using Lego WeDo kits. On the final day of the workshop, the girls constructed robots and programmed them to play a soccer game.
“Whenever people think about computer things, they get very intimidated about it, especially girls,” Baheen said. “So I wanted to start off very fundamental and make it seem very fun.”
The most impressive part of the project for Baheen was how interested the girls became. According to a survey Baheen conducted prior to the workshop, only one girl had an interest in computer science at the start of the activity. By the time the workshop ended, Baheen’s survey showed nearly three-quarters of the girls now had an interest in computer science.
“It’s the duty of every single person who has a passion to inspire others with that passion,” Baheen said. “That’s what I was doing with my Silver Award.”
Baheen isn’t just focused on getting more girls interested in computer science, she wants more girls to get involved in Girl Scouts.
“I came to the (Silver Award) workshop in my Girl Scout attire,” Baheen said. “One of the girls said,’You’re a Girl Scout? I want to be a Girl Scout, but I don’t think I’m going to be doing it next year.’ I asked her why and she told me, ‘I don’t know, I don’t think it’s cool anymore. I don’t want to do cookie selling.’”
Baheen fears more and more girls are losing interest in Scouting, especially as they get older. Baheen realized this first-hand when her troop disbanded following eighth grade after her fellow members decided to give up Scouting. Baheen is now a Juliette Girl Scout, a designation giving Girl Scouts the opportunity to continue Scouting without being a member of a troop.
“I thought that was extremely sad because I think I’m one of the very few girls at my high school who are pursuing Girl Scouts,” Baheen said about her troop disbanding.
Membership numbers for Girl Scouts have been on the decline for a number of years. An article on the Girls Scouts national website said there were 3.2 million Girls Scouts and adult volunteers in 2013. Today, the website says membership is now down to 2.6 million Scouts.
Baheen said Girl Scouts helped her grow and feels it is her duty to mentor young girls and encourage them to become Scouts.
“I think it’s the responsibility of those older girls to show everyone that Girl Scouts is more than just about selling cookies,” Baheen said. “It’s about community service and voicing your opinions. If (younger Scouts) are able to look up to older Girl Scouts and beyond, they might be inspired by that and look to do scouting in high school and beyond.”
Baheen was thrilled to meet a number of other Scouts her age when she received her Silver Award on May 21 and is hoping to work with some of them in the future.
“I did not expect to see so many Girl Scouts from my area,” Baheen said. “I’m hoping I can do projects with other Girl Scouts.”
Looking ahead, Baheen is beginning to explore topics for her Gold Award, the highest award available to any Girl Scout.
“I’m very passionate about human rights as well as women’s rights,” she said. “I’m determined to find a Gold Award project that encapsulates what I’m passionate about.”
