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How a young cohort of 15 became inspired by the tech industry in just one week!

In October, we hosted our very first She Codes Next program in the Perth CBD with 15 young women aged between 13 – 17. As a collaboration between She Codes and Purposeful, She Codes Next combined teaching tech foundations with exploring the vision, purpose and passions of the participants.

Beginning the week with a quiet bunch all ready to learn, we were delighted to see how much they grew within just five days, and by the last session we didn’t just have a great cohort of young technical minds, but everyone in the group had made new friends and joined a beautiful new community of like-minded people. 

For the practical component of the week, each participant had the chance to learn web fundamentals, build their own personal website from scratch with HTML and CSS, and also had the chance to get hands on with hardware – learning the fundamentals of programming while playing with sensors, sound, and interacting with the physical environment. 

Weaved in with the technical content, Elizabeth Knight, the founder of Purposeful, presented new ways and techniques for each of the participants to explore their passions, in a way that opened up opportunities for their future.

“It was such an exciting week, full of different delights and surprises!” She Codes founder, Kate Kirwin shared. “We’ve worked with people as young as seven before at our one day workshops, but having the chance to teach the cohort for a whole week, as well as get to know them and what drives them, was a really inspiring experience.”

“I can’t wait to keep in touch with the cohort and see where they go from here, they have such amazing career paths ahead – and the future really does hold whatever they choose!”

We had some amazing feedback from the participants’ parents as well, with Maggie sharing that it made her teary reading what they’re going to be doing. “Life will be so much better for my girls than it was for me thanks to the work you are doing!” she shared.

For the team at She Codes, this program was about more than just teaching coding, it was about opening up the possibilities for young women in the tech industry, and we’re proud to say we achieved this throughout the week. So, keep your eyes peeled for the next generation of tech entrepreneurs, teachers, lawyers, developers, architects, and more.

To find out more about our upcoming programs, or to partner with us to bring a program to your community, head to our website or reach out to kate@spacecubed.com.