Ladies Learning Code to hold girls-only event
Posted February 14, 2013 12:31 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
GTA students will enjoy a PA day on Friday but many teen girls are clamouring for a different kind of lesson.
We’ll Take Your Kid To Work Day, a day-long event run by Girls Learning Code, will allow up to 30 girls to meet with mentors from six technology companies.
“This is the second time we’ve done it. The first time we did it was this past November, where it coincided with Take Your Kids To Work Day, as an alternative option,” Laura Plant, the director of Girls Learning Code, told CityNews.ca.
“It was quite popular and we knew that day that we would need to bring it back again.”
Mozilla, Career Mash, TorStar Digital, Shoplocket, Hubba and Jet Cooper will open their doors to girls ages nine to 13. The students will meet with tech professionals and get a behind-the-scenes look at possible careers.
“When I was a child, my perceptions of the industry were completely skewed. It’s not dry or boring or grey. It’s fun and extroverted and powerful. We’re really trying to build confidence with girls and to encourage them to consider tech as a career option,” Plant said.
“We can show them different environments and different careers, but not where we’re lecturing them. They’re going to be building something at every company we meet. They’re building something they can go home and show their parents and show other kids at school.”
All the projects will be available on line. Click here to see them.
Girls Learning Code (GLC), an offshoot of Ladies Learning Code (LLC), launched in March 2012 and is exclusive to girls. LLC is open to women of all ages, as well as men, and the ratio of mentors to students is 4 to 1. GLC is exclusive to women and the ratio of mentors to students is 2:1. All of the GLC mentors are women, Plant said.
“When we started LLC, we wanted to be beginner-friendly, social and collaborative…and we wanted to bring more gender-diversity into the tech industry.”
Working with a younger demographic will help to do that, Plant said.
“We want to positioning technology as something that can help them be creative and change the world.”
The workshop costs $50 and will take place at Mozilla at 366 Adelaide St.
Click here for tickets.
