{"id":3127,"date":"2017-08-08T14:08:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T14:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edscoop.scpnewsgrp.com\/high-school-girls-see-future-in-stem-after-summer-of-coding\/"},"modified":"2018-11-15T07:51:24","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T07:51:24","slug":"high-school-girls-who-code-stem-summer-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\/edscoop\/high-school-girls-who-code-stem-summer-program\/","title":{"rendered":"High school girls see future in STEM after summer of coding"},"content":{"rendered":"

The idea that computer science and other STEM careers are \u201cjust for boys\u201d appears to be extinct in a classroom of about 20 Washington, D.C.-area high school girls who have spent their summers building websites, programming robots and coding like crazy.\n<\/p>\n

The high schoolers are participating in a national summer immersion program<\/a> organized by the nonprofit Girls Who Code, and if all goes according to plan, many of them will go on to pursue degrees in computer science or related engineering and math fields. The program is part of a broader effort to create gender parity in the historically male-dominated fields of STEM and, in particular, computer science.\n<\/p>\n

The girls, most of whom are ages 16 or 17, participated in a seven-week program that starts off teaching basic drag-and-drop coding functions and quickly moves into more sophisticated coding languages, like HTML, CSS, Python and JavaScript.\n<\/p>\n

In between computer science lessons from an instructor and two teaching assistants, they heard from female guest speakers representing tech leaders like SpaceX and NASA. They also took field trips \u2014 to Georgetown University, Palantir Technologies and twice to Capitol Hill, where they met with members of Congress.\n<\/p>\n

This particular classroom, housed in the Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies building in Washington, is sponsored by Software.org: The BSA Foundation, which helped line up special speakers and events throughout the summer. But in Washington and its surrounding area, there are at least a handful of other Girls Who Code classrooms, sponsored by companies such as Salesforce, AT&T and Lockheed Martin.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are more relaxing ways for high schoolers to spend their summers, but I can\u2019t think of any that would be more fulfilling,\u201d Chris Hopfensperger, executive director of Software.org, said in an interview with EdScoop. \u201cAnything we can do to help level that playing field \u2014 but not in an artificial way \u2014 it\u2019s incumbent on all of us to encourage young women that there is a place in science, in tech and certainly in the software industry for them.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Coming in ready to learn<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

Maya Shende, a doctoral student in George Washington University\u2019s computer science program, said she had been aware of Girls Who Code for about four years before deciding to become an instructor for the 2017 summer immersion program.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always just been in awe of what they do, and I\u2019ve always wanted to be a part of it, but I just never had the time,\u201d Shende told EdScoop.\n<\/p>\n

Shende has spent the summer working with teens who, for the most part, had never written a line of code in their lives, but that wasn’t quite her own experience with computer science.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a slight<\/em> background in tech,\u201d she joked, explaining that both parents, an aunt and an uncle all work in STEM. \u201cI grew up around computer science. I was very much exposed to it from a very young age.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

But despite her own coding finesse, Shende said she has been constantly impressed by the girls in her class \u2014 they\u2019ve learned in seven weeks what most college students might not learn in a full semester, she said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely been accelerated, but I have been pleasantly surprised at how well they pick stuff up,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are so smart.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The application process was competitive, she said, but that alone is not what has allowed these girls to succeed: \u201cThey come excited every day. They show up every day with so much enthusiasm. They\u2019re ready to learn.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Teaching them this summer has been the \u201cmost fulfilling experience I\u2019ve ever had in my life,\u201d she added.\n<\/p>\n

A future in STEM<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

In addition to new friendships, internship credit and coding proficiency, the program has cultivated a longer-term interest in science, technology, engineering and math jobs for some of the girls, many of whom will spend the upcoming academic year applying to colleges.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has made it more of a viable career path I\u2019d want to go toward,\u201d said Alice Xue, a 17-year-old from Ellicott City, Maryland.\n<\/p>\n

When Alice started the program seven weeks ago, she had no prior coding experience, though she had taken an introductory computer science class at Centennial High School, where she will be a senior this year. Despite the learning curve, Alice was so excited about coding that, after spending the day in the immersion program, she would often go home and get to work on her own website, just because.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just really exciting,\u201d she told EdScoop. \u201cThis is the first time that learning something has actually been fun [for me]. I\u2019ve actually wanted to learn more and go in depth. With this, you can really develop your own things \u2014 anything you can think of, you can build it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

For her final project, which she presents Wednesday night at the Girls Who Code graduation, Alice and a partner are programming a robot to detect the strongest rays of sun and adjust itself so that the light receptors on a solar panel will catch the most sun. \u201cI\u2019m pretty optimistic it\u2019ll work,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

With this program behind her and her last year of high school ahead of her, Alice said she wants to start thinking about her future. \u201cI really want to aim high and get into higher positions in STEM,\u201d she said, \u201cespecially since I kind of envision myself creating something or being, like, an entrepreneur, maybe. Just reaching those higher positions is something I will strive for.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Not just for boys<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

Tshiabu Kabongo, another student in the Software.org-sponsored classroom, came in with a bit more computer science experience than Alice, but not by much.\n<\/p>\n

Tshiabu\u2019s mother encourages her to learn about technology, math and business, so she has taken some basic computer science classes at Magruder High School in Rockville, Maryland, where she\u2019ll be a senior this year.\n<\/p>\n

Those classes were nothing like the one she took this summer, she said.\n<\/p>\n

For starters, they weren\u2019t nearly as fun or engaging. At school, the classes are pretty structured and require a lot of fill-in-the-blank-style learning. In the Software.org-sponsored class, on the other hand, she\u2019s been hard at work for the last week coding a website for personalized hair care. Visitors to the site can take a quiz about their hair \u2014 indicating the style, length and amount of body, for example \u2014 and then receive recommendations on products and treatment.\n<\/p>\n

But the biggest difference, she said, is that her high school computer science class of about 25 students had just two other girls, and that all seven sections of the class had a similar gender breakdown. \u201cThey\u2019re all majority boys,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we first started [the Girls Who Code program], they said, ‘The reason you might not get something right is not because you\u2019re a girl, it\u2019s because this stuff is hard to learn,’\u201d Tshiabu added. \u201cI think it\u2019d be helpful to have that kind of mindset when you\u2019re in a room full of other people.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why companies like Software.org and Lockheed Martin are supporting this initiative, Hopfensperger said. \u201cIt is hugely important for the tech industry to correct, for one, its numbers, but also the notion that science and technology aren\u2019t places for women \u2026 that [those] classes are just for boys.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Girls Who Code immersion program inspires young women to pursue jobs in tech while teaching them that computer science is welcoming to girls, too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":3128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":true,"story_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1849],"tags":[4,90,112,589,1446,2025],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[1852],"class_list":["post-3127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-k-12","tag-education-it-news","tag-stem","tag-girls-who-code","tag-women-in-technology","tag-gender","tag-software-org-the-bsa-foundation","author-emily-tate"],"yoast_head":"\nHigh school girls see future in STEM after summer of coding | EdScoop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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