The fun way to practice those hacking skills
Austin is the newest home for a program that hopes to reduce the gender gap, one high school girl at a time. The national non-profit initiative Girls Who Code has wrapped up their free 7-week summer immersion program hosted at Indeed headquarters, in conjunction with AT&T, IBM, and the Barlovento Foundation on June 27th.
What’s the camp all about?
The camps are project-based and use robotics, art, storytelling, video games, apps and web sites to teach the basic principles of coding. It’s not just about the knowledge, though: Team building, networking, and “sisterhood” are encouraged. Students get a real world view into the daily life and work of all kinds of tech careers:
“You’ll hear from guest speakers, participate in workshops, connect with female engineers and entrepreneurs, and go on field trips. The program culminates in a final project where you build your own product and share it with your class.”
The program brings together 20 sophomore and junior teen girls to participate in activities like code classes, tech job activities, and Indeed’s annual hackathon. The program hopes to increase the numbers of female graduates who enter tech related jobs. One source estimates that in 2020 there will be 1.4 million jobs in computing. US graduates will be poised to fulfill 28% of those jobs but only 3% will be filled by women.
Girls Who Code programs have worked with almost 40,000 girls nationally to date. The company provided $1 million in scholarships this year to help girls from underserved communities attend these summer immersion programs in Austin and across the country.
Girls Who Code churns out girls who code
Does it work?
90% of girls who attended the national summer camps said they planned on pursuing a degree or a minor in computer science or a related field and 77% of them said they changed paths because of the Girls Who Code program.
Attendees rave about the camp and the opportunities they feel like are open to them they might not have been aware of:
“Girls Who Code gave me the kind of education you can’t find in a classroom. Not only was I taught how to program using multiple languages, but I was given the opportunity to talk to women who have successful careers in the field. Girls Who Code made me understand that computer science isn’t just about 1’s and 0’s, it’s about combining your interests with technology to better the future. “ – Myisha Kinberg
Get on the list for next year
Know someone who might benefit from Girls Who Code? You can join the mailing list here to get updates and submit applications for camp next year. Kudos to Indeed for being one of the major forces behind bringing this camp to Austin, hosting it, and making an imprint on so many young women.
#GirlsWhoCode
