Tara Chklovski is the founder and CEO of Iridescent, a remarkable Google funded non-profit dedicated to encouraging young women’s innovation in technology. Iridescent manages the world’s largest program of its kind – currently hosting 3,157 girls in its organization. The girls are from 45 different countries as diverse as Yemen, Brazil, India and Nigeria. Their challenge, Chklovski say, to think beyond traditional cultural stereotypes.
According to Chklovski, “Girls are three years ahead of everyone else.” She says that young women involved with the Iridescent program have consistently out-innovated Silicon Valley, coming up with apps and websites which are only later successfully commercialized by companies like Pinterest.
On June 18th, Iridescent will be hosting its annual Technovation event. Held this year at Intel, it’s a giant hackathon for high school girls from around the world. The most innovative entrants will win prizes of up to $10,000 – and this promises to be one of the most interesting events of the summer.