Welcome back to Atlanta Tech Edge. There are about half a million unfilled technology jobs across the country right now. In today’s stem spotlight hear how a local software development company is working towards getting girls interested in coding now, to fill those jobs in the future.
I have a 12 year old girl and could not get her interested in technology at all. And so we just kind of sat in a boardroom and said “what would it take to make her excited? And what would a program look like?”
So Band of Coders founder, Bobby John, found a new venture. A coding camp just for girls.
It’s such an exciting field and I feel like there’s all these women that could be a part of it and fill those positions.
Girls 11 to 15 take the week-long camp and are challenged with building a mobile app that solves a real world problem.
Right now we’re actually working on, like, a coloring book kind of thing ,like, where you just paint with your finger, it is so cool.
I’m just looking at it like “wow, you could do all of this” and they’re excited because they play on their iPads and this helps them know how it works.
John’s own employees help teach and run the camp. This year about 800 girls will go through the program. And just like in the startup world, they’ll pitch their product. Not for funding, but to their parents who love seeing returns on their investment.
I’m excited for who she becomes from this experience, this next couple of days. I mean, I’m definitely going to plant some very long-term seeds in their subconscious mind that’s really going to sprout to something amazing, because like I said, technology is the future and is the now.
My dream and I don’t know when it would be, it’s that, like, you know, coding would be like piano lessons. It’s something you do your lifelong, your parents put you in it when you’re young, you go once a week for half an hour and they have a skill which is really valuable for this country.
And like many who went through piano lessons, not all kids are into it at first .
And I didn’t know what it was at first until I came here. It did seem kind of nerdy and kind of geeky at first, but it’s really a lot of fun.
If you’d like to get involved Band of Coders is accepting applications to volunteer and teach coding at The Girls Academy all year long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6agB6oGgW4
