As we cruise into New Year, we reflect back on the huge year we have had here at She Codes! It’s been a year filled with plenty of ups and downs as we navigated yet another year of the pandemic, expanded to new locations, saw alumni accept new roles, promotions, and conference speaking opportunities, awards being won across the country and of course, plenty of code being written along the way.
We started the year with our shiny new website thanks to the team at House Digital (we still can’t get over how fresh it feels) and jumped straight back into code with our 21/22 Perth cohort powered by Bunnings, the Commonwealth Government’s Office for Women, and Cash Converters. (You can read more about the Perth 21/22 cohort here) We had so many highlights from this group, from an amazing Immersion Day at Bunnings to a massive turnout for the Showcase at the end of the program. We also created some extra special video interviews with students, alumni, mentors and program partners to showcase the program – check out the videos from Alexander, Ben, Bronwyn, Ellen, Lee, Meng, Nina, Sandra, Sophie, and Tracy.
Over in Brisbane, we hosted our third cohort of Plus, this time powered by Auto and General Insurance – it was such a delight to welcome Shawn Wallace, Angela Ryan and the team onboard as partners. This program was conducted out of The Precinct, hosted by our friends at the Queensland AI Hub, who have signed a partnership agreement with us for 2023 and we can’t wait to be back in their beautiful space in the new year.
It was a big year for our one day workshops too, with four more sold out events in Perth, including the biggest we’ve ever hosted, seeing over 160 women register, with another 90 on the waitlist. We also saw our first event in regional Queensland, running in Ipswich, bringing opportunities to new geographies and demographics. Speaking of new geographies, 2022 held the launch of our Sydney suite of programs! In June, we ran our first event in Sydney to a sold out crowd from all over the state (including a few who drove from Canberra) and launched applications for our Plus program, powered by VGW.
In September, we opened the Western Sydney Startup Hub, powered by Spacecubed, which is now home for the Plus cohort in the Western Sydney region. (Meet the 22/23 Sydney Plus cohort here!) We have been blown away by the support from NSW and are so excited about the opportunities in this state. Watch this space as more exciting updates will come from Western Sydney in 2023.
2022 was a great year for our mentor and alumni community, with Alexander Karan, Ricki Barnes, Hayley Stewart, Macklin Hartley, Amy Kapernick, Cristi Middag, and Jia Keatnuxsuo selected to speak at DDD Perth. Jo Minney, Cristi Middag and Nina Karisik were invited to speak at Web Directions in Sydney and Bel Lloyd, Lachlan Young, and Ashleigh Wilson were welcomed to the stage at DDD Brisbane. That’s a lot of conference speakers! Not only are our community being invited to speak, but they are also winning awards with Ben Fitzhardinge named as the winner of the Outstanding Allyship award at Women in Tech WA Tech+ awards and Somayra Mamsa taking home the win for her category STEM Academia and Research the same night. Our own Kate Kirwin was named Champion of Change at Women in Digital awards, a national awards night recognising talent in technology.
All in all, it’s been a huge year (is that why we are tired?), with lots of impact for current students, alumni, mentors, and the tech community at large. We have produced another Impact Report, measuring the influence of our work economically and socially and tracking key statistics – like how many cupcakes were served🧁.
In showcasing this Impact, we announced our newest scholarship model – Pay it Forward. Pay it Forward is an opportunity for alumni, mentors, or those from the general public to fund places in the program for future women. We hope this can transform into a perpetual fund of women supporting other women to upskill, be empowered, and career change. If you would like to give the gift of education this festive season – join us here. Your gift could help provide future skills to women, and help us change the face of diversity in tech.
Until next year – have a cupcake, work on some code, celebrate the women in your life, and have a happy and safe festive season!
From,
The She Codes Team