Our Mission + Vision

MISSION: Girls Who Code works to educate, inspire, and equip young women with the skills and resources to pursue academic and career opportunities in computing fields.

VISION: Girls Who Code’s vision is to reach gender parity in computing fields. We believe this is paramount to ensure the economic prosperity of women, families, and communities across the globe, and to equip citizens with the 21st century tools for innovation and social change. We believe that more girls exposed to computer science at a young age will lead to more women working in the technology and engineering fields.

PATH TO SUCCESS: The U.S. Department of Labor projects that by 2020, there will be 1.4 million computer specialist job openings. To reach gender parity by 2020, women must fill half of these positions, or 700,000 computing jobs. Anecdotal data tells us that an average of 30% of those students with exposure to computer science will continue in the field. This means that 4.6M adolescent girls will require some form of exposure to computer science education to realize gender parity in 2020. Girls Who Code has set out to reach 25% of those young women needed to realize gender parity.

Girls Who Code aims to provide computer science education and exposure to 1 million young women by 2020.

Together with leading educators, engineers, and entrepreneurs, Girls Who Code has developed a new model for computer science education, pairing intensive instruction in robotics, web design, and mobile development with high-touch mentorship and exposure led by the industry’s top female engineers and entrepreneurs. In its inaugural program, Girls Who Code empowered young women from New York City’s five boroughs and will launch programs in New York, Detroit, San Francisco, and San Jose in 2013.

Partners & Sponsors

Girls Who Code has mobilized leaders across sectors to invest in a real and tangible solution. We are grateful for the unprecedented support of our partners and sponsors, each of whom is deeply committed to our mission and each of whom has made our work possible.

Meet the Girls

The stories of transformation and empowerment from Girls Who Code alumnae are many. This is the story of Julia.
 

Hi, my name is Julia Geist. I’m 15 years old, from Brooklyn, NY. I love physics, enjoy sports, and work at a local food bank. I learned at an early age that I’m not like most kids at my school, and not just because I love physics. The oldest of five children, I come from a family with little means—in everything I do, I work to make sure my brothers and sisters don’t face the same hardships that I did. And early in life I realized that to create a better life for my brothers and sisters, I had to create opportunities for myself.

I learned about Girls Who Code from my librarian, who noticed I spent much of my day and all of my lunchtime at the computer in the library. I applied to the program not knowing what to expect, but looking for opportunities to learn new things. On day one in the classroom with 19 strangers, I was quiet and shy.

What happened in the weeks following is history. I quickly learned everything from how to program robots in Python to how to build websites in HTML and video games in JavaScript. I met with female engineers from Google, Gilt Groupe, Twitter, and Stanford. I worked at AppNexus, toured Google, Foursquare, Facebook, AT&T and began to envision a new future for myself. I fell in love with computer science—and not just because of the amazing opportunities it has afforded me.

On graduation night at Google, I was approached with my first ever job offer. Today, at 15, I have two web design jobs to help make ends meet at home. I am teaching my dad to code. He’s now working to become an IT professional to replace his substitute custodian job. My sisters are next on the list.

Some say I’m a natural coder. I think I’m just lucky to have been a part of Girls Who Code. My life—and the lives of my family and my community will never be the same.

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