A free, 7-week immersion camp to teach high school girls about computer science and tech jobs will be held in Philadelphia and Wilmington, DE this summer. Deadline is apply is March 15
Girls Who Code is once again sponsoring the program for rising junior and senior girls. It runs from 9am to 4 pm Monday through Friday.
Each week, girls are introduced to computer science principles through real-world projects in art and storytelling, robotics, game development, web development, and more," according to Girls Who Code's website." Languages used include Scratch, Python, Arduino C, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
"Students hear from guest speakers, participate in workshops, connect with female engineers and entrepreneurs, and go on field trips to other tech companies," Girls Who Code says.
At the end, students work on a final project based on something that's important to them and, when finished, they become part of the program's alumni network, which Girls Who Code says numbers in the thousands.
Girls Who Code also make a stipend available for students in need for transportation costs, living expenses or to offset a loss of summer income. You can apply for the stipend as part of the application process.
The need for more girls to enter STEM careers has led to other summer programs in our area, including a TechGirlz robotic camp at Villanova University last summer.
Many schools also now offer coding courses to their students. The Girls Who Code camp, however, is designed for girls who have not taken an intermediate or advanced computer science course, although Girls Who Code has other programs that might be of interest to them.
The application for the summer immersion program can take 20–30 minutes to complete, does not ask for grades or letters of recommendation, but does require you to respond to a short-answer question. Students who are underrepresented in the computer science and technology fields; don't have computer science programs at school; are eligible for free or reduced lunch, or who identify as female but are gender nonconforming or non-binary, are all encouraged to fill out an application.
"Girls Who Code values diverse classrooms," it says on its website. "As long as students are interested in exploring opportunities in technology and computer science, we strongly encourage all eligible students to apply."
