High School Girls Learn JavaScript

I won't get into the multitude of reasons our world has gotten to be this way (see here, here, and here if you're curious). Thankfully, this issue has been gaining more attention in recent years, and a number of great organizations have sprung up to help educate and support companies, parents, and young people to change the status quo. A few weeks ago, Yeti had the opportunity to help out with ChickTech's high school event in San Francisco.

It's no secret that the tech industry has a diversity problem. Women make up a disproportionately small percentage of tech company workforces, and this is exacerbated in technical and managerial roles. I won't get into the multitude of reasons our world has gotten to be this way (see here, here, and here if you're curious). Thankfully, this issue has been gaining more attention in recent years, and a number of great organizations have sprung up to help educate and support companies, parents, and young people to change the status quo. A few weeks ago, Yeti had the opportunity to help out with ChickTech's high school event in San Francisco.

We volunteered to lead a JavaScript workshop for high school girls in the Bay Area. The girls came in with no knowledge of development, and at the end of the weekend they all walked away with holiday-themed web sites.

Day 1

The girls learn about HTML, CSS, file structure, and some developer tools. They build personal websites.

Day 2

We build on the previous day and throw some JavaScript into the mix. The girls sign up for developer access to the Instagram API and learn how to pull down recent photos that are #thanksgiving. They learn how to write simple loops that add images to their pages using jQuery.

All in all, a great weekend! We had a good time, and it seems like the girls did too.Thanks to Winnie, Rudy, James, Liz, and Sana for teaching, to the ChickTech staff for organizing, and to the students for showing up on the weekend to learn something new.