Helping girls build their future in tech

I represent the American dream — I’m the daughter of refugees, and today I’m the CEO of a national nonprofit. I believe in this country and believe in the opportunity and importance of lifting up girls like me. It’s what motivated me to run for public office (twice). Even though I lost those races, they helped me see that in computer science classes across the country, girls are being left out and left behind by the fastest growing industries in the country.

I decided to do something about it. I paid $5 for the domain girlswhocode.com and handpicked 20 girls in NYC in a borrowed conference room to learn to code. It was an experiment — and it worked. It’s now been five years: we’ve reached 40,000 girls and done our fair share of teaching, but we’ve learned a lot from them as well. We aren’t just addressing a need — we’re building a movement, and we know we can reach so many more.

There are 500,000 open computing jobs — good paying jobs — and the gender gap in the industry will continue to grow if we don’t do something about it quickly. I want to close the gap and it breaks my heart to have to turn away thousands of girls every year from our Summer Immersion Programs. So we decided that the best way for us to close this gap even faster was to expand what Girls Who Code has to offer. Part of this was the launch of our New York Times best-selling book series in August, to allow every girl, regardless of access to technology, to have exposure to coding.

But what really makes Girls Who Code special are our programs — which is why I’m so excited to announce the creation of a brand new program called Campus. We’re bringing our tried and true curriculum and launching it in more cities on a timeframe that works for girls’ busy schedules. We piloted the program this past summer and reached 100 girls. In summer 2018, we plan to reach over a thousand girls with programs in six cities — New York, Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.

We’ve specially designed Campus to give girls an edge for college with in-depth learning and a project-based approach — perfect for getting girls a head start towards changing the world. These courses are also special in their own right — for the first time ever, we’re offering courses that go deep in subjects like Website Design and Development, Wearable Tech & Fashion Design, and iPhone App Development. We’ve also heard from younger girls who want to be able to have the immersive summer coding experience — so we’ve opened Campus up to girls from 6–12th grade. And we’re already seeing results: 80% of Campus program graduates say they’re more likely to pursue a major or minor in Computer Science because of Girls Who Code.

We’re not alone in building our movement. All great ideas take investors, and I’m happy to have Deloitte as a partner and problem-solver with on how to close the gender gap in tech. With their support, we’re able to offer $250,000 for scholarships for Campus so that any girl can participate in this program, regardless of financial need. Deloitte and Girls Who Code share a commitment to make a difference so that everyone has the opportunity to succeed, from the classroom to the workplace. As Deloitte Consulting LLP Principal Deepa Purushothaman puts it, “Today, the girls learn to code; tomorrow, they bring their skills, confidence, knowledge, and leadership to the workplace.”

Ready to join our movement? Learn more about Campus and apply for a Campus program near you!