I Am Girl is an annual program designed to give middle school girls the opportunity to be introduced to STEM fields, encouraging them to explore the possibilities of science and math.
“We want to encourage the girls that the science and technical field can be fun, and they should not to be afraid to be interested in it,” said Amber Jackson, who oversees the program alongside I Am Girl creator Angela Verdell.
Verdell created the program eight years ago because she said she believes more women needed to make girls consider careers in STEM fields early on.
“I designed the program to be able to reach out to middle school girls, to invite them to the university and expose them to engineering in a really fun way,” Verdell said.
Because the goal of the program is to introduce more STEM-oriented fields, such as engineering, to girls early on, I Am Girl’s mission focuses on middle school girls.
“We have students from all over the Golden Triangle regional area, plus some from further locations such as Quitman, Mississippi,” Jackson said. “The application goes live late fall each year and is sent to schools to invite their students.”
Volunteers, most of whom are female engineering students on campus, bring I Am Girl’s mission to life. Every team involved has two or three members put together, and these teams devote their time to make plans for a specific project which changes annually.
“Each session there’s a different topic, a different project or program the students are involved in,” Verdell said.
This year, participants are working on creating and presenting plans for a food pantry. I Am Girl gives these participants the opportunity to create their own version of an ideal pantry, showing them an engineering example used in everyday life.
Shanika Musser, a civil engineering major, volunteered at I Am Girl and oversaw three girls as they designed their project. 
“All the designs include a place for food to be stored, but the girls were creative and added other details to their structures,” Musser said. “For example, my group kept a space between two shelves for a homeless person to find shelter. Other groups put solar panels or gardens on the roofs of their shelters.”
Due to a combination of corporate sponsorship and sponsorship given through the Bagley College of Engineering, I Am Girl is free to all participants.
“Through generous donations from the Bagley College of Engineering, we all hope this program will familiarize the girls with STEM and its various fields at a young age for free,” Jackson said.