Society of Women Coders workshop for girls

We have recently been contacted by an ISL Alumna, Akanksha Mittal, with regard to an organization called Society of Women Coders (SOWCoders), where they go to different countries and host coding camps for about a week long to teach girls (ages 14-19) how to code, empowering them with a valuable skill.

The coding-camp will teach Intro to Web Development with Social Entrepreneurship. During the camp, each girl is tasked with building a coding project, usually a LIVE website (submitted via GITHub) with HTML and CSS, which represents a Social Entrepreneurship Venture (product/service that could potentially solve a local social issue). The graduating students will receive a Certification that can be a value addition towards college applications.I One the last day of the camp all the participants present their projects to their peers, teachers and team in a showcase and we reward the best project with a brand new laptop. After the camp, they will recruit the interested girls in their mentorship program where they provide them with advanced coding courses, Tech-mentor assistance through Slack and access to hackathons etc. They will also recruit one of the interested students in the ambassador program (an informal leadership program) where the student can launch a club at her school for more girls to join and learn coding and take the knowledge further to the underserved communities as well! 

More about the travelling team:

Kavya Krishna (New York, USA): She is the Co-founder of the Society of Women Coders (SOWCoders), a women-led organization that works to encourage young girls from developing nations to opt for education and careers in STEM, by conducting free coding and Entrepreneurship camps and providing mentorship. Previously, She worked as a Senior analyst at SiriusXM in New York. Through SOWCoders, she has worked with government agencies and civic organizations in Haiti, Kenya, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Belize to establish coding camps, and has personally taught at several of them. She is also involved with the Code in place Initiative at Stanford University as a Section Leader. She is an advocate of Women Education especially in the developing world.

Rohan Kapoor (Dublin, Ireland): He majored in CS from UMass Amherst, USA and works as a Senior Software Developer at Draftkings in Dublin, Ireland. Previously, he has worked in similar Tech roles in Boston as well. Rohan is passionate about giving back and has mentored with SOWCoders since 2018.  

Additional Links: 

SOWCoders Website : societyofwomencoders.org

Malala on SOWCoders : https://twitter.com/malalafund/status/1278010474915823617

SOWCoders at TEDx : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E52aiPm13zA&t=15s

The proposed camp would be during the October holiday, roughly from Saturday October 14th until Monday October 25th. The exact dates will be sent shortly, but it basically means that any girl who wishes to participate would have to be here in Lusaka for the duration of the holiday. Classes will be at ISL from morning until afternoon. No previous knowledge of computers is required. A laptop is compulsory. There is no cost. Lunch is provided.

A hardcopy of the permission should have been given to all 14 year old girls at the end of the school day. If anyone did not get one, please cut and paste permission below into an email and send it to sec.pa@isl.sch.zm

If interested, please complete the form below and return it tomorrow, Friday 10th to the Secondary office.

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Student name: _____________________________ Year: ________  Age: ___________

Parent name: __________________________  Parent Signature: ______________________________

The signature above indicates permission for my daughter to participate in the Coding workshop