Saturday Coding Program for Girls

September 2019 - Present

Introduction

Noting the severe disparity regarding the participation of under-served and female in technology propelled the Camden Dream Center to embark on a Saturday Coding Program for Girls in grades 5 - 8. As a result, we started in the 2019-20 school year with a cohort of 15 G4-8 students and continued with a cohort of 10 in the 2020-21 school year.

Challenges

According to a U.S. News/Raytheon report (2016), the employment gap in STEM fields is more challenging by diversity challenges, as women and minorities, who comprise 70% of college students but less than 45% of STEM. Further, the National Science Foundation reported in the State of US Science & Engineering - 2020, that “despite accounting for over half of the college-educated workforce, women in the United States made up only 29% of those employed in science and engineering occupations in 2017.”

  • Engage women, specifically women of color in coding and STEM

  • Create a space for women of color and people of color to learn more about coding

Summary & Methods

We leverage the proven code.org curriculum and contents from Python 3 and Cisco NetAcad programming essentials in Python. One Saturday of the month is dedicated to the employer network technology sessions. We have Techgirlz and Comcast supporting the technology sessions.

Solutions & Metrics

  • Over 50% of the participants are returning students over the last two school years.

  • 15 G5-G8 students participated in the Saturday Coding Program for Girls program since the 2019-20 school year, learning how to code using scratch coding and python programming.

Tunde A. Onitiri