Dear forum members,
Here I want to share with you about my 3 days online workshop experience, what I learned and my next follow up activities.
As you know through my social enterprise newHorizons I am trying to solve girls school drop out issues in Azerbaijan. I am developing an empowerment program which is inspiring girls to continue their education and help them to learn English language.
For my program design I am mainly using the Design Thinking Method. So basically I am designing workshops in different topics which I guess can be interesting for my target group and testing it and collecting their feedback and using these feedback for improving the program. Later all the relevant topics are tested and confirmed I will start to design a written curriculum.
Last 3 days from 8th of May till 10th of May I organised 3 days online workshops for schoolgirls from Baku village. These girls are from 7th-8th- and 9th grades. This time the topics were about SMART goal settings, Leadership and Entrepreneurship.
At the beginning 10 girls signed up for the program but unfortunately because of the internet issue most of them could not join and I continued with 4 of them.

Having poor internet access, or not having it at all, girls feeling too shy to join the program, all these issues made me think a lot. Because through newHorisons I want to create a kind of solution that will long lasting and create a long-term impact for the communities and society. That is why here I am considering using technology and blended learning methodology. But it seems so if I create a solution where access to the internet is important that can be too risky for the program ... That is why today I was thinking maybe I should print out all the curriculum materials and make it as a book so in this way they will have no issue getting access to the program.I would like to get your feedback about this issue.

I also want to share my insights how did they feel about the topics. When it was about SMART goals and Leadership they could relate these topics easily and they were more active and excited. But on the last day I taught them in a very simple way about entrepreneurship even though they said it was an interesting topic and they learned a lot but I felt that it was a bit heavy for them to digest.
Please if you know any methodologies how can I teach teenage girls about entrepreneurship in an easy and fun way please share the resources or your thoughts about it as well.
At the end of the workshop when I asked them what was your feedback? As an answer when they asked me "When is it going to happen again?" this question made me really very happy. :)
After creating some awareness in them about themselves, and the importance of the eI will wait for your feedback and advice. Education my next follow up activity will be to help them to take small actions everyday to achieve their goals, dreams and to deep dive into their potential.
If you have any suggestion what kinds of activities can I consider for the next level please feel free to share with me. :)
Thank you very much for reading till the end. :)
Dear Nargiz!
I'm so happy for your first class with girls. 4 student is great!
and I feel the joy of their question about the next section, I know it satisfied you :). I would like to know more about your Design Thinking Method if it is possible.
I'm afraid to say It's nice to have a book, but is it as effective as classes?
And for your question about how to teach entrepreneurship to them, I think the very first step in this kind of situation is to teach people to to recognize their ability that they already have and after that teach them to use it in a way to be seen.
by the way I think New Horizon is great.
Can't wait to see your sharing of the Design Thinking Method. It is a human-centered, iterative process that we use a lot to tackle problems...
One day, 45 minutes.:)
@Nargiz Askerova How long have you been talking to the 4 young ladies about SE?
Dear Nargiz!! Finally, finally, and I'm so happy that you got this enlightening moment when "your girls" said "When is it going to happen again?" YES, that's exactly IT... and now you will follow this feeling, trust (your own intuition/gut) and LISTEN carefully to the great people who inspired you so far Very touched by this post. P.S. I saw the camera and tripod in one of the image for this amazing milestone!
Nargiz, wonderful work!
Hello, Nargiz,
first of all, congrats with your first workshops:) 4 participants it's a good start. i really like your idea to create a book of training materials/ trainings' materials kit. I think it would be very beneficial for you in to ways: 1) you will rectify your content for yourself/ will systemize all materials to one place 2) later you can sell this kit/ toolkit (online version) to other projects which would like to work with young girls
I am very happy for you Nargiz. Please never say again you have a plan..New Horizons is up and running :) Huge progress since last September when I met you first at Tallinn University