You are a student who self-identifies as female and are actively enrolled at an accredited educational institution that grants high-school or college/university degrees. Homeschooled high school students are also welcome. If you are considered a minor in your place of residence, then you must ask your parent’s or legal guardian’s permission prior to submitting an entry into this Contest.

WHAT ARE TEAMS?

Up to six (6) eligible students may submit a single entry as a team. Team members may come from different academic institutions. We have learned in past experiences that the most effective team number is four.  

• Each competitor may belong to only a single team within this Contest.
• Teams are locked by 9:30 am on the day of hackathon, and no further changes to team membership can be made beyond that time.
• Each team is solely responsible for its own cooperation and teamwork. In no event will Sponsor officiate in any dispute regarding the conduct or cooperation of any Team or its members.

The registration information you provide and the Contest App and entry materials that you develop will together be called your “Entry.”  

HOW MANY ENTRIES MAY I SUBMIT? 

You may submit one Entry per team.  

We will disqualify any incomplete or illegible Entries that we receive. We are not responsible for entries that we do not receive for any reason, or for Entries that we receive but are not decipherable for any reason.

Challenge 1: Connecting Girls to Success

​Girls are not new to leadership; think of Cleopatra or Queen Elizabeth. Think of the girls who led the civil rights and education reform movements. However, women are still outnumbered by men in the most prestigious positions, from Capitol Hill to the board room. Women make up only 29 percent of private-sector executives in the United States, and of the U.S. workers who make more than $100,000 per year, only 27 percent are women. Within these executive ranks, the very top levels of leadership (and therefore earnings) are even more male dominated. For instance, only 5 percent of Standard & Poor's 500 index CEOs are women. Women are shut out from positions of power. As a result, they are also shut out from a higher income and greater financial stability. Moreover, women of color experience an even larger wage gap and are ​less likely than white women to reach leadership positions.
(http://www.aauw.org/research/barriers-and-bias)

Girl Force USA wants to change these numbers. Let’s help girls make it to the top leadership roles in their fields. We’re working on getting girls trained in leadership and confidence here at Girl Force USA and part of making a lasting change is continued leadership development. The best way we can accomplish this is through mentorship and meaningful connections.  
Our challenge is to create a platform where members of Girl Force USA can continue training on their own and connect their goals and aspirations to resources in the Girl Force USA community. The app would connect members to other members, mentors, and potential employers. It would be similar to a dating app where member profiles could connect to member/mentor/employer profiles and use a messaging platform to ask for advice, catch up, or request a meet up. You are invited to explore any new platforms that might work best for creating meaningful connections among the Girl Force USA community and encouraged to find simple, creative, and inspiring ways to do so.

Challenge 2: Creative Repurposing to Reduce Waste

​It is estimated that every day there are about 3.6 million tons of trash generated on the earth. As a result, the beautiful blue star, has been turning into a huge landfill.  If we don’t do something now, trash monster will soon occupy the earth, and we would have to surf along with trash tide, ski on white plastic, and hike in the landfill trail. An important solution to avoid that is to cut down your waste production.

The Green Horizon (TGH) is founded by a group of Chinese moms who wanted to promote green culture among youth by encouraging civic participation in environmental protection. In recent years, TGH held a series of public events that integrated environmental awareness with literature and the arts using tools such as children art exhibitions, environmental science contests, and waste materials repurposing and upcycling workshops. These events are designed to educate and inspire youth to follow sustainable green practices. 
Sometimes it looks like reducing consumption is hard or even crimps your lifestyle. One focus of TGH is to provide an interactive platform to engage resourceful older generations to help youth learn creative and artistic ways of repurposing and upcycling that could stir up a world of fun and social satisfaction.  Be creative, be open and be innovative! Here are some examples.

1. Turn A typical wire wastebasket upside-down, add some paint and a stained wood top, and you've got a modern side table.
2. Add a bend to your old keys into a U-shape and you've got the perfect wall hook.
3. Old zippers could be folded into pretty headwear. 

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The challenge is to build a web-based application or mobile game that will engage youth in simulated activities that creatively repurpose used items into useful resources. The goal is for youth to learn about how various repurposing would benefit the environment.