Kode With Klossy Partners with the Ad Council's She Can STEM Campaign to Celebrate the Bright Futures of Girls in STEM

NEW YORK, March 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ad Council's She Can STEM campaign has joined forces with Karlie Kloss's nonprofit organization, Kode With Klossy, to show girls how exercising their minds – using science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) – is the first step to changing the world. In a new PSA (public service advertisement), launching today to coincide with Pi Day, supermodel and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss is joined by a team of bold, confident young girls who exercise their STEM skills through exciting coding projects, which help inspire self-confidence and creative thinking.

"When we create opportunities for girls to build, collaborate and re-imagine life as we know it, we create opportunities for them to change the world," said Lisa Sherman, President and CEO of the Ad Council. "Kode With Klossy provides immersive coding experiences to girls across the country, and we're thrilled to partner with them to continue encouraging girls to pursue science, technology, engineering and math."

The new PSA features Karlie Kloss and a team of Kode With Klossy scholars warming up for what appears to be an athletic event but turns out to be an epic coding session. We see Kode with Klossy scholars Kyara and Valeria setting up the database, Tallie handling network layering and Isabelle building out the front end. The video stars several other Kode With Klossy alumni and future scholars, including:

• Sammy, a Kode With Klossy alumna who developed an app that helps chronically ill children feel less alone
• Alexis, a Kode with Klossy alumna who started a digital magazine aimed at instilling confidence in young women
• Eleanor, a future Kode With Klossy scholar.

Kloss concludes the PSA by reminding viewers that when we create opportunities for girls to stretch their minds, we give them the confidence to change the world. She also invites audiences to learn more by visiting @SheCanSTEM on Instagram. The video was produced by female-owned goodstory films, with Rachel Fleit as the director. The production was also women-led, with an all-female cast. Brooklyn-based studio Please Space donated its space for the production pro bono and provided equipment at a significantly reduced rate.

Women make up half of the total college-educated workforce in the U.S., but they only constitute 25 percent of the STEM workforce, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.ⁱ Research shows that many girls lose interest in STEM as early as middle school, and this path continues through high school and college, ultimately leading to an underrepresentation of women in STEM careers.

Since the launch of She Can STEM in September 2018, the campaign has been supported by a variety of corporate, nonprofit and media partners. Most recently, Bloomberg and IF/THEN, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies, have joined the campaign as funding partners for 2019, along with founding partners IBM, Verizon and Google. In the coming months, the campaign will spotlight the incredible achievements of women in STEM at Bloomberg and affiliated with IF/THEN and Lyda Hill Philanthropies as a rallying cry for young girls to pursue their interests in STEM.

Media partners who have supported the campaign since launch include: Facebook, Twitter, Google, MTV, Playbuzz, Kahoot!, Paramount Animation's Wonder Park, among others.

The new broadcast and digital PSA will run in donated air time, per the Ad Council's model.

To learn more, join the @SheCanSTEM community on Instagram or visit the She Can STEM website.

About Kode With Klossy
Kode With Klossy creates learning experiences and opportunities for young women that increase their confidence and inspire them to pursue their passions in a technology-driven world. Founded in 2015 by supermodel and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss, Kode With Klossy works to increase opportunities for young women in STEAM. Kode With Klossy's flagship program is its free, two-week summer coding camps for young women ages 13 to 18. The organization provides scholarships for young women to attend the camps, which teach the fundamentals of programming in a fun, collaborative and hands-on learning environment. In addition, Kode With Klossy supports other mission-aligned organizations through grant programs, as well as creates inspiring tech-focused digital content for their community throughout the year. For more information, visit https://www.kodewithklossy.com/.

About the Ad Council
The Ad Council brings together the most creative minds in advertising and media to address the most worthy causes. Its innovative, pro bono social good campaigns raise awareness. They inspire action. They save lives. To learn more, visit AdCouncil.org, follow the Ad Council's communities on Facebook and Twitter, and view the creative on YouTube.

ⁱ U.S. Department of Commerce: Women in STEM: 2017 Update. Available at: https://www.infodocket.com/2017/11/14/new-report-and-data-women-in-stem-2017-update/

SOURCE The Ad Council

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