Bear Web Teams Up with Girls Who Code

Believe it or not, I can’t wait to spend the rest of the summer coding with high school students I haven’t yet met!

Over the last two weeks, I helped high school juniors and seniors code websites advocating topics they care about passionately. I facilitated a sisterhood of young women lifting each other in praise and graduating from the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program (GWC SIP) with new skills, newfound friendships, and innovative perspectives on their futures. And over the next 6 weeks, I will see another 60 students, from all over the world, take risks, be brave, and discover how great Computer Science can be.

Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program

An amazing free, 100% remote, and completely voluntary program, GWC SIP introduces students (no prior coding experience necessary) to the basics of HTML, CSS, and Javascript over four days. After completing projects that draw on these languages, the students are introduced to female leaders in the industry, who review the students’ project presentations and offer feedback. The conversations these leaders have with SIP students are not limited to technical skills; they range from networking and the importance of soft skills to managing self-doubt, navigating new experiences, and coping in male-dominated industries. During the final presentations, students spoke about how much they learned, AND about their new network of peers.

After a year of doing everything online, shopping, recreating, book clubs, work, etc., you might expect to be tired of remote classrooms, but I found this to be highly rewarding, fully accessible, and one of the most accepting learning environments I’ve had the fortune to facilitate! I cannot wait to see the positive impact these students have on their community and ours!

Volunteering to Teach Computer Science

I began volunteering with Girls Who Code just after I joined Team Bear in 2016. Having pivoted from Communications to Design and Development myself, I was excited to join forces with an organization empowering students to look beyond traditional classrooms, beyond traditional professions. During the last 5 years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with students across the globe who’ve built interactive books, translation apps, websites, personality quizzes, and even Bluetooth-enabled friendship bracelets.

Bear Web will again facilitate a club during the ’21-’22 academic year. To join, or for more information, feel free to reach out to us via email. Be sure to add our club name, BEAR WEB DESIGN TN34941, as your subject.

Girls Who Code is a nonprofit organization that aims to support and increase the number of women in computer science by equipping young women with the necessary computing skills to pursue 21st-century opportunities. The organization works toward closing the gender employment difference in technology and changing the image of what a programmer looks like. By December 2014, three thousand students had completed a Girls Who Code program, 95% of whom went on to major in computer science at university. The organization is sponsored by a number of software and technology companies including AT&T, Google, Twitter, Walmart, and Microsoft. For more information visit https://girlswhocode.com/.