Yesterday we hosted 80 Girl Scouts from the Girl Scouts NorCal chapter for an afternoon of STEM mentorship.  It was an amazing opportunity for our senior leaders at Cisco to learn from and engage these impressive young women in an Internet of Everything brainstorming session and aspeed mentoring activity.

The enthusiasm that these incredibly talented Girl Scouts had was contagious and it was an invigorating experience for all of us!  The candid discussions included topics ranging from the importance of a quality education, encouragement to excel in science, technology, engineering and math and inspiring them to envision themselves as leaders in the 21^stcentury workforce. I am a big believer that if you try something new and you don't succeed what is the worse than can happen?  We encouraged the Girl Scouts to always remain curious, to value diversity in teams and if they are the only girl in the after school App Development program, to stick with it.

A favorite parting comment from a participant yesterday was about what she learned from our CEO John Chambers:  "When we are young and have a specific passion in a field, feel free to see where life will take us.  Don't be so focused on only one path, we might fall in love with something else down the line.  Have fun and explore!"

So proud to be a partner with US2020 and for the opportunity to host the bright young women of the Girl Scouts of Northern California this week.