A group of 22 girls between the ages of nine and 13 attended the Girls4Tech workshop at the Washington Nationals Youth Academy. (Courtesy of Mastercard)
Major League Baseball is incorporating Mastercard’s Girls4Tech STEM education program into its youth academies.
The first such program was held at the Washington Nationals Youth Academy a few weeks ago for 22 girls between the ages of nine and 13. The Nationals’ three-time Cy Young winner and six-time All-Star pitcher, Max Scherzer, made a surprise appearance after the workshop. A few of the students will walk onto the field at Nationals Park on Tuesday with the starting lineups for the MLB All-Star Game.
Girls4Tech will expand to other MLB youth academies later this year. The next such program will be held in conjunction with the Yankees who will host students from New York’s Dream Charter School on Jul. 31. Dream originated as Harlem RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) before expanding to include a full school curriculum.
“We are really thankful that Mastercard allowed us to have this opportunity to engage with our girls in this important way,” Tal Alter, vice president, Dream Foundation & Youth Baseball Academy, said in a press release.
The Girls4Tech curriculum uses Mastercard technology and initiatives such as data analysis, encryption, and fraud detection to teach math and science. The program is in its fourth year and has hosted 50,000 girls at events across 21 countries in nine different languages.
