WRITTEN BY: JENNA ANDERSON

On Thursday, July 14th, 2016 the Technovation World Pitch Summit will be held in San Francisco, California to decide which team of girls will win the grand prize of $10,000. The Technovation Challenge is a global technology entrepreneurship competition for girls in middle school and high school. Girls worked in teams with industry mentors to create mobile phone apps that addressed a community problem. The challenge was launched in 2009 and has had over 5,000 girls from over 64 countries participate.

Canadian teams have performed exceptionally during this year’s Technovation Challenge. Team Fresh, made up of girls from West Vancouver's Rockridge Secondary School, was working on developing an app that would help adolescents regulate their moods. Under the mentorship of Appnovation Technologies, Team Fresh made it all the way to the High School Semifinalist round.

One Canadian team has even made it to the Middle School Final round. From Montreal, Team InDaFridge, has developed an app to decrease food waste by providing recipes for the items you already have in your fridge.

Check out InDaFridge's App Pitch:

WWEST would like to send out a huge congratulations to all the girls who participated in the 2016 Technovation Challenge. These inspiring young women show that girls who are encouraged to be curious, daring and driven can create innovative solutions to improve the world.

If you're interested in being a mentor for the 2017 Technovation Challenge or if you know any girls (up to the age of 19) who are interested in being part of a Technovation team visit SFU's Faulty of Applied Sciences' Technovation page for more details.