The creative tinkering of internal computer hardware, the focused construction of electricity circuits, and most of all, the enthusiastic laughter of children. On Saturday, February 18, the All Girls STEM Society and Cyber Assist – two tech based service clubs at Bishop’s – held a service workshop for underprivileged girls at the Mission Valley Library. 

Despite their similarities, this was The All Girls STEM Society’s (AGSS), headed by Kasie Leung (‘23), and Cyber Assist’s, led by Ryan Qin (‘25), first ever service event collaboration – and it did not disappoint.    

The girls at the workshop attend Title 1 schools: schools that help students below the poverty line meet the academic standards for their particular state. Therefore, these girls have not had the opportunity to frequently work with computers. Kasie believes workshops like this are “little victories help our girls persevere through moments when they’re told or think that science isn’t ‘for them.’” 

Cyber Assist President Ryan Qin (‘25) explained that the workshop consisted of “many different fun activities along with a couple of lectures” for the girls.   

First, Kasie talked to the kids about circuits and circuitry with an activity using copper tape, 1.5 Volt coin batteries, and LED lights. AGSS Co-Director of Operations Emmie Kao (‘25) said that the circuitry activity was her favorite because it reminded her of what she “used to do in elementary school,” and “it was also a fun hands-on activity.” AGSS Co-Director of Communications Serena Zhang (‘24) wrote on the AGSS website that upon conducting electricity through their own bodies, one kid exclaimed: “This is actually really cool. I never thought I’d really like this!”  

Next, the kids simulated the inner workings of a computer, through taking on the roles of a computer’s central processing unit (CPU), motherboard, random-access memory (RAM), and graphics processing units (GPU). Each group acted as their assigned computer part in front of the others, and, using the knowledge they learned on the part, had to describe a toy through a chain of different people (like a game of telephone). Finally, they had to draw the best depiction of the toy based on the clues given. Ryan said that this activity was “creative and a ton of fun.”

Finally, Ryan and Cyber Assist took apart five monitors, so the kids were able to look inside them and learn about all of the equipment inside of a commuter – a unique experience they had never had before.  

Co-Vice President of AGSS Angelina Kim (‘25) said she enjoyed the event because “the kids were so positive and enthusiastic,” and she “learned how to communicate more meaningfully” with the kids. She also praised Kasie for being “calm and collected throughout the preparation process” and “always inspiring” her to give back to the community. 

Emmie added that the workshop was very meaningful because she “could tell a lot of the students had never really thought about how a computer worked” and seeing their reactions and engagement was “really cool.” Kasie was “inspired by the girls’ relentless enthusiasm for science” despite being ignored throughout their lives. 

Ryan concluded, “Overall, it was a really rewarding experience to see our hard work having such an impact on the community.”  Having the opportunity “to host such an engaging and educational workshop for the children” was meaningful for him and all the club members. 

Following this workshop, the AGSS plans to have a Cryptography workshop on March 18, with many fun activities and games revolving around the writing and solving of code.