Girls Who Code
In today’s fast changing world, coding is increasingly becoming more prevalent as a skill. The work landscape is changing so quickly that by 2020 there will be 1.4 million computer specialist openings in the workforce, though only 29% of those openings will be filled by university graduates. Girls Who Code is a national organization that is tackling this problem by getting young girls interested in the computer science discipline, and exposing them to the science, technology, math, and engineering fields as well.
Carissa Delain, a sophomore student at HHS, started a local chapter in the HASD. She works as the student ambassador of the program with Erin Draheim, the class instructor and software engineer, and Vicki Delain, a HHS math teacher. “We try to get girls interested in STEM fields, but particularly computer science.” Erin Draheim explained in an interview. The HASD program held weekly sessions each semester, and is open to girls in grades 6 – 12. There were 27 girls from Hortonville High School and Middle School enrolled.
Exposing more young girls to computers and software means more female computer experts in the future. 74% of middle school aged girls express interest in computer science, but by college age, only .4% of girls choose computer science as a major. At a time when the computer science field is developing quickly, the number of women employed in the field is decreasing. In 1984, women represented 36% of computer science graduates, however in 2015 only 18%.
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