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07/09/13 | OOO

Meet a 13-Year-Old Programmer Excited to Change the World

Abby Bobé of Black Girls CODE shares one inspirational girl’s journey to programming and discusses the organization’s expansion plans. 

By Abby Bobé (Community Outreach and Development Manager, Black Girls CODE)

Meet Aita, a 13-year old budding programmer who is confident in designing video games and building web pages. Aita is one of 1,500+ students, or “Tech Divas” as our organization likes to call them, who are learning to change the world through the creative use of technology.

Before attending a Black Girls CODE workshop in 2012, Aita did not know much about computer programming. Now, she is filled with curiosity and excitement about what she can create next.

“I didn’t think it would go well. I thought it was going to be a lot more complicated, but [the instructors] explained it really thoroughly,” Aita said of her first introduction to coding. “In the future I want to become a computer scientist and create healthcare technologies that will help people around the world.” Currently Aita is eager to learn mobile app development and was asked by her middle school to help teach computer programming during their summer courses.

The Next Generation of Female Creators

Imagine the impact if more girls grew confident in learning computer programming and planned to pursue careers as creators instead of being mere consumers of tech. This is exactly the type of confidence and change Black Girls CODE wants to ensure all girls experience, so we have recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $100,000 to educate 2,000 more girls in computer programming and seed eight chapters across the nation. The campaign will end on July 26, just 17 days from now.

Since last year’s Summer of CODE 2012, Black Girls CODE has received requests from over 80 cities around the world asking to bring workshops to their town. “Summer of CODE 2013 – The Remix” is the first step in responding to this demand.

Here’s what our founder, Kimberly Bryant, had to say: “We are truly excited to launch our second annual Black Girls CODE Summer of CODE. Our inaugural program in 2012 had an ambitious goal of reaching 200 students with affordable technology classes, in seven cities, over the course of 90 days. We exceeded that goal handily reaching almost 1,000 students in summer 2012, in over seven cities plus in our first international program in Johannesburg, South Africa! This year we set the bar higher with the audacious goal of reaching 2,000 girls, in ten cities, over the course of this summer. We feel our work with educating the next generation of technologists is vitally important and we are confident we can meet and exceed this goal with the support of our generous community and corporate partners. We are definitely up for the challenge!”

 184dee8About the guest blogger: Abby Bobé is a recent MBA graduate from Mills College. She is passionate about technology, marketing and economic development. As Community Outreach and Development Manager for Black Girls CODE she is using her passion to increase social impact and empower young girls of color to be future tech leaders. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

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