September Newsletter 2023
It seems almost impossible to believe that October has arrived and we’re already a good few weeks into the new term.
At Love Tech we’ve been busy behind the scenes, consolidating new projects, revitalising old ideas…
You can therefore expect a flurry of excitement as the new term unfolds and ideas come into fruition. (Check out the teasers at the end of this newsletter!).
In the meantime… here’s what September’s harvest had to offer…
To begin with… ***EXCITING NEWS!!!***
Love Tech are DELIGHTED to say we’ve been selected as a finalist in the Education and Learning Initiative of the Year category for the Isle of Man Media Excellence Awards that are taking place on November 16th.
This is no small achievement. We therefore want to say a huge THANK YOU to all our amazing supporters – to all our dedicated committee members, Mentors and other volunteers, and of course, to YOU, the parents, teachers and students who help make #TeamLoveTech the vibrant and exciting organisation we seek to be.
We’ll let you know how we get on!
In other news…
September has been busily taken up with our fabulous Wildlife Challenge!
What an initiative this has been – a true collaboration between ourselves and two fantastic organisations in the shape of Manx Wildlife Trust and IOM Biosphere – with hugely generous sponsorship from Appleby and Manx Telecom.
The comp, designed to get families out and about and using tech to explore our Island’s amazing natural habitats whilst making pledges to protect our precious Biosphere, has now ENDED!
Representatives from each organisation are therefore getting together this week to choose the WINNER of Manx Telecom’s kind donation – a 6th Generation iPad mini!
Runners up can also expect to win £50 vouchers for Manx Wildlife Trust’s shop in Peel – so keep an eye on our socials to find out more.
As well as this…
Have you checked out our website media page lately?
You may remember a while back we instigated a video project designed to ‘Inspire and Empower’ you all into exploring the many #WomenInSTEM career opportunities that are available right here in the Isle of Man.
And what better way to do this than by allowing you to hear directly from our committee members and Love Tech Mentors about what they get up to, why they support Love Tech, and what advice they’d give to anyone thinking of exploring a STEM career.
We’re in the process now of loading these videos to our You Tube channel and, from there, onto our website media page.
Do have a peek, these short films are super informative and the perfect inspirational springboard for curious kids.
Many thanks to videographer and photographer, Glenn Whorrall, for the fab videos, and Manx Telecom and Eagle Lab for allowing us to use their premises for the filming.
And looking forward…
Love Tech is very excited to announce that our present STEM books in primary schools’ initiative, kindly sponsored by PwC Isle of Man, is COMING TO A CLOSE…
And we’re excited BECAUSE!!!
Our committee members only have ONE primary school left to visit – which means that in a week or so, we will have visited all 33 of the Island’s primary schools, delivered a STEM-tastic assembly to each, alongside a whole heap of FREE STEM themed books – carefully sourced for us by Bridge Bookshop.
This initiative has been excellent, allowing us to reach out to over 5500 of the Island’s children over the last two years to inspire and educate them in all things STEM.
Of course, in the process, we’ve also learnt so much about where our services can continue to positively impact education, AND… (drum roll!) thanks to generous new sponsorship, once again from PwC, can confirm this won’t be the last our Island’s primary schools see of us!
So watch this space – more on all of this TO BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY.
Also coming soon – think Super Cars, a revitalised TechMums, new Mentors and yet more inspirational videos…
If you’ve a child in year 5 or 6 heading over the STEMFest at the Villa next week (an Isle of Man Government initiative that schools can choose to opt into) – we’ll be there too, VR Headsets and Sphero balls in tow.
On top of this! We’ve a brand-new Mentor of the Month initiative beginning in October, kicking off with Architect, Jacqui Verduyn, Love Tech Mentor and owner of Verduyn Architecture, a Manx based company that works across the UK, Europe and Africa.
More on all the above in next month’s news.
In the meantime, please keep an eye on our socials to stay up to date with everything we’re up to – liking, sharing and commenting really does help us maintain visibility.
We’d also love to see what STEM-azing stuff you’ve been up to – and this is the perfect time to give a MASSIVE SHOUT OUT to 9 year old, Holly Beattie, for sharing with us her brilliant account about the day she took NASA astronaut, Jeffrey Hoffman, on a trip around the Isle of Man!
Oh, and remember, to ensure you never miss an event again,
Sign up to our events’ NEWSLETTER.
And to finish, Love Tech would love to say a huge THANK YOU to Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce for all the support and extra visibility they have given us over the last two years as the recipient of their Charity of Choice 22/23 status.
It’s been brilliant, and also good to look back on what we’ve achieved during this time.
As well as visiting all the Island’s primary schools, this year alone we’ve held 8 community events and had Love Tech representatives presenting or sitting on panel discussions at no less than 10 STEM events. We’ve also ramped up our Mentor campaign and online presence in our mission for true #genderequality in the workplace.
Having Chamber recognise the value of our work in this way has been greatly appreciated.
The time has come now to pass the baton on, and to none other than our friends over at Manx Wildlife Trust. Well done to them – it’s a fantastic opportunity and we know they’ll make the most of it.
Have a spooky October everyone!
Love Tech is an IOM registered charity no. 1293.