Girls who Code
Girls Who Code offers female students a chance to learn about the STEM field.
September 16, 2015
Let’s be honest: girls do not always have the same opportunities as boys do in the science field. However, Diamond Bar High School has a new rising opportunity for girls, thanks to the club, Girls who Code, which was formed this year by junior Lauren Wong.
Unlike other coding clubs and organizations, members do not have to know how to code at all. The goal of Girls Who Code is to support females and help them realize that they are not bound by career stigmas; they can explore different career paths and find out if the STEM field is one that they want to pursue. The main platforms of education in the club will revolve around web development and design, programming essentials, mobile development, and hands-on work.
The club is endorsed by Girls Who Code International. Since the start of this club, girls have been learning not only how to code but also about how programming plays an integral role in the STEM field. Girls also have the opportunity to participate in the Summer Immersion Program to enhance their skills in programming.
This summer, Wong attended a VMware program, a 7-week intensive coding program for girls who are more advanced in the computer science field. From robotics, to HTML and CSS, she received valuable training and mentorship. By attending this program, Wong was exposed to influential people such as Diane Gonzales, the vice president of Girls who Code International, Yanbing Li, who Forbes magazine named the seventh most powerful engineer in the world, and Sylvia N’guessan, a programmer at Google.
This program is unique because Wong had the opportunity to work with female engineering mentors to create mobile apps and pitch ideas to executives of the program. Not only did she obtain the chance to improve on her ideas and applications, but also was able to meet mentors that can aid girls such as herself on their path to the computer science field. This summer enhancement program was a chance for the junior to join a diverse environment where everyone had the same goal.
“Our main goal is to go to programming-fest at Cal State LA next January. It’d be great to have a team representing DBHS there, and it’d be really cool to have an all-girls team,” Wong said.
The vision of Girls Who Code Club is to narrow the gender gap in technology and to encourage girls to pursue computer science. Along with the programming-fest, Wong hopes to host a miniature hackathon at DBHS and collaborate with Vidcode, a cross-disciplinary platform that teaches computer science through filmmaking. Teaming up with DBHS’s chapter of Girl Up, an organization that that unites girls to change the world, girls will be equipped with the necessities to pave their own career paths and find their own way to success.
“Being a programmer isn’t just about writing lines and lines of tags. Programming is a lot about problem solving and thinking in a new way,” Wong stated. “So hopefully our members will think like programmers once they learn.”
