Earlier this year, the Women at WIN Committee socialized an opportunity to volunteer with the Girls Who Code program in Chippewa Falls. We are drawn to Girls Who Code because it aims to engage girls with computer science during a critical development window (ages 13-17). If we are going to increase diversity in computer science and other STEM fields, we need to provide engaging, accessible programming to students when interest tends to drop off. That is exactly what Girls Who Code does.
We volunteer with Girls Who Code because computer science is something that is very important to us. We have been involved in programming/ computer science for many years and it has always been one of our passions. This is why we jump at the opportunity to volunteer with Girls Who Code, so we can help younger people discover the joys of programming and creative problem-solving.
What we like best about volunteering with Girls Who Code is that our employees get to learn and explore alongside the students. Instead of teaching something we already know, our employees get to do exactly what the students are asked to do themselves: demonstrate bravery, vulnerability, and resilience by trying something new and potentially daunting in a historically male-dominated field of study.