Starting on Jan. 25, Computer Science teacher Debbie Madison, with the help of English teacher Ann Whitehair and Captain Bridget Flatley from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, added a new after-school club to the calendars of girls from grades 6 through 12.  The national Girls Who Code group brings girls together, teaches the ever-important skill of programming, and encourages girls to pursue a STEM career.

“Technology is super important moving deeper into the 21st century, as computers become more and more ingrained in our everyday lives,” Claire Aguiar (12), who has been coding for three years, said.

Since Aguiar and other older members have developed a proficiency in coding prior to joining the club, some will be acting as mentors to the younger girls throughout the process.

“Oftentimes the key to creating really amazing coding projects is being able to work with others,” Aguiar said.

The average meeting will be based around a larger project that will teach the girls new skills and give them an opportunity to present their work to their peers.

“We do some kind of talk for five minutes, a get-to-know you activity,” Madison said. “Then the girls will decide on a project that they want to do and they’ll each go in and learn their own different code to do it. We’ll come together at the end where we tell what we were doing or what we learned, and we’ll have some kind of fun activity.”

At the first meeting, members played with programming in an unconventional and interactive way.

“We played with [Whitehair’s] [coding] robots,” Madison said.

When members were asked about their opinions on the importance of girls learning coding skills, they responded with the social impact in mind.

“I feel like people are really fighting to get more women into those majors and careers now, and it seems to me like it’s working,” Amelia Merithew (10) said. “I think it’s a good idea to continue that pattern.”

However, there may still be room for improvement in gender equality in the workplace according to Aguiar.

“Even though the gap is closing, we see that advanced tech fields are often way more male dominated that we like to believe,” Aguiar said. “Girls shouldn’t have to worry about losing credit of their work to a man, as we have unfortunately seen so often in the past. It’s less that I think women would be better than men in the tech industry, but more that they should be regarded as equals in the field.”

Whether a girl joins with intent to go into a STEM field, to just learn a new skill, or anything in between, Girls Who Code welcomes all with an interest. Meetings are held every other Friday starting on Jan. 25, and will go from 3:45 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.

To go to the school’s club website, click here.

If you are interested in the national scale program, click here.