For almost five years now, Shorewood High School has offered female students the opportunity to participate in the Girls Who Code (GWC) club. GWC is a worldwide nonprofit organization which 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 Shorewood chapter, run by mentors--and Northwestern Mutual employees--Sarah Scott, Holly Murphy, Carly Fristoe meets every Thursday evening virtually, and while lessons are guided by course criteria from GWC headquarters, the local chapters decide on how their clubs are run.
“At the beginning of each year, we brainstorm with our members what we ultimately want to achieve by the end of the year,” says Fristoe. “As mentors we encourage and help guide the students but it’s a very student-driven club. We empower them to make their own decisions for what they want to get out of the club and we fully support them in whatever they desire to achieve. Each year, we try to narrow down one final project as a goal, and then we tailor the year’s learning to make sure we end up accomplishing that goal.”
While Covid-19 has forced the club to transition to a fully virtual setting, the group still meets once a week on Google Meet and the mentors also provide open office hours for students to receive additional guidance if needed.
This year, a main goal for the group has been to work with a mix of software and hardware and explore the interesting relationship between the two. On the software side, the members are learning two programming languages - Python and JavaScript - and they are using those languages to learn other foundational skills for technology management and organization as a whole.
“My favorite part of being in the club has been learning new programming languages, such as Python, and being able to write my own programs,” says SHS freshman member Noa Biener. “I joined partly because I wished to expand my knowledge and experience of coding and partly because I wanted to be part of a community of girls who could also code.”
SHS junior member Paisley Lucier shares that coding is also one of the main reason she joined. “It was something that I had never tried before…I love that there are so many opportunities and possibilities of what we can do. You never quite know what to expect next, but it is always challenging and fun.”
On the hardware side, the group is working with Sphero SPRK+ Robots, which according to the group’s mentors are a huge hit with the students. Fristoe says the students are writing code and programming the robots to race around, go through mazes, recite poems, and much more.
Below are two videos submitted by members of the group, showcasing their Sphero SPRK+ Robots.
Fristoe says that she loves being able to provide a consistent learning space for young women in Shorewood, and that the best part of being a mentor is witnessing the student growth in many aspects.
“The principles we teach in this club expand far past coding and technology. Girls Who Code is not only on a mission to close the gender gap in technology but it’s also on a mission to raise a generation of confident and empowered women who aren’t afraid to take risks or be the only woman in the room. Being able to see that spark when our students learn a new skill or see them excited when they move a robot around the room with code that they’ve written is extremely rewarding. It’s really extraordinary to watch.”
For more information about Girls Who Code, visit their website at: https://girlswhocode.com
With any inquiries regarding the Shorewood chapter, please email: [email protected].