This Monday, the RapidSOS team spent an inspiring afternoon with the amazing young women from the Al-Noor School’s Girls Who Code club. In honor of International Women’s Day, this spotlight highlights the group and the larger Girls Who Code organization. All questions are answered by Betsy Cannon, facilitator for the Al-Noor School’s Girls Who Code club.
Q: When and why was the Al-Noor School’s Girls Who Code group started?
A: Al-Noor’s Girls Who Code club was started in the fall of 2014 by Tabassum Kazi, a senior at Al-Noor. She had taken a couple of computer science classes and workshops and wanted to delve in and get more of her friends coding and building projects together.
Q: What is Girls Who Code’s mission?
A: GWC’s mission is to close the gender gap in technology. More info about how and why can be found here.
Q: How do you think Girls Who Code fits into the 2017 International Women’s Day theme “Be Bold For Change”?
A: GWC focuses not only on coding skills but also on collaboration, impact, and confidence. One of the most important things we focus on is being brave: being willing to show others our projects before they are perfect and being open to learning from others. We want our students to have not only the skills, but the confidence to speak up, suggest new ideas, and push tech forward.
Q: How can female engineers who are already in the workforce help young women who aspire to work in engineering?
A: Visibility means a lot. Showing young women your own excitement and passion can motivate them to keep building. Giving them more options to aspire to will spark their creativity in dreming up their own role. After you show off your own store and creations, introduce them to others in the field so they can see the full breadth of tech from social media to climate models to robotics to fitness wearables.
Q: Anything else you want people to know about Girls Who Code?
A: In addition to the Clubs Program, Girls Who Code runs a seven-week Summer Immersion Program. Applications are currently open – encourage the high school women in your life to apply!