Big Dream

Gr 7 Up—Seven young women model tech-savvy girl power at its best. In the first half hour, the program briefly notes the lack of women in tech (currently, nine of 10 "tech leaders" are male; women are underrepresented in STEM careers) and then introduces seven young women. The diverse group includes Cassidy (a college senior with job offers from Google, Apple, LinkedIn, and others), Ashana (formerly homeless, with a GED), and Mariana, a high school student in Costa Rica (there's some subtitled Spanish dialogue). Marwa and Asya, both of whom wear headscarves, talk of forming a tech-oriented "club for young ladies" in Oman. Martha, in Kenya, dreams of starting a coding school for girls, and Kassandra, at a religiously affiliated school in Arizona, dreams of an admiralship in the navy. The featured young women are diverse and exuberant in attitude, with energy and humor. Boys and girls alike can learn from Martha's perseverance, Kassandra's outreach to low-income students, and Cassidy's predicament when she finds out her coding workshop has just lost half of its participants. The last hour is more broadly focused, with scenes involving their families and coworkers, a presentation at a tech conference, and Kassandra's preparation for a school dance.