Mission More Girls Into Coding!

Hi, I’m Avye and with my mum Helene, together we form a rare mother and daughter team. We are incredibly active in the tech and maker community, making hugely important steps to help girls explore an interest in STEM. As a team, we run Girls Into Coding, a social enterprise engaging girls aged 10 to 14 in STEM events, providing them with unique hands-on workshops in physical computing, robotics, coding, engineering, design, 3D printing and more, alongside the opportunity to listen to inspiring talks from women & girls doing cool stuff in STEM.

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT US

I’m a 17-year-old student who is passionate about STEM and the founder of Girls Into Coding. In 2018, already a coder, maker, and workshop leader, I came up with the idea of organising tech events for girls, after repeatedly observing that most attendees at my coding & robotics workshops were boys. I was determined to encourage more girls to give STEM a go. As a result, I decided to set up ‘Girls Into Coding’ to empower girls.

Helene, my mum, is very passionate about engaging more girls with tech opportunities and encouraging continued girl involvement in coding and tech, helping to address the female underrepresentation and gender-based discrepancies in STEM education and occupations. She has been entrusted as director and project manager to steward the Girls Into Coding program, giving it the full-time attention it deserves.

So far Girls Into Coding has delivered hugely successful events and created opportunities to engage 900+ girls. 

We launched our first Virtual Girls Into Coding event in August and the participants loved it!

We believe that all girls should feel empowered to access these opportunities, initially to develop and sustain an interest in STEM and ultimately, so girls are engaged to consider STEM education & careers.

THE EVENTS

The huge success of the events along with my enthusiasm and a further boost of determination gained from my recent awards, made it easy to set higher ambitions for GIC. To formalise our commitment to this, Girls Into Coding was granted the status of Community Interest Company at the beginning of 2020.

Girls Into Coding now aims to engage at least 5000 girls every year with meaningful workshop opportunities and inspiring talks. This is to contribute towards addressing an obvious gender gap – helping to bring about a situation where ‘girls and women are engaged in STEM activities, education & careers - equally comfortable, with an equal sense of belonging and in equal numbers’. We want all girls to feel empowered to access opportunities to learn how to code and develop their making and digital skills. 

At each event, we aim to provide free workshops led by specialist STEM educators & assisted by volunteers, to groups of 30 girls (per event) aged 10-14. They consist of Robotics, physical computing, engineering, design, coding, 3D printing and more, along with talks delivered by female role models actively engaged in STEM. So far I have had the personal pleasure of leading a robotics workshop at each event.

Participants are split into small groups of 7-8 girls per facilitator. This allows for 1-2-1 attention, hands-on practical experience, as well as catering to a variety of learning styles, ensuring engagement remains high throughout the session. The girls also have the opportunity to listen to inspiring talks from role models - broadening their awareness of women & girls doing exciting things and occupying a range of roles in the industry. 

SUPPORT US!

With your help, we can provide more free Girls Into Coding events and achieve our goal of engaging at least 5000 girls each year. We believe it is important to be able to continue providing these enriching opportunities at no cost to the attendees in order to include the most diverse range of girls.

Your support will enable us to continue:

- Posting the kits out for the hands-on workshops to the attendees.

- Delivering FREE workshops

- Providing components and materials to develop workshops.

- Providing kits for the girls to continue their STEM journey at home and beyond.

- Delivering high-quality education & standards

- Attracting quality mentors and speakers who are experts in their field

- Removing barriers to access

- Ensuring that workshops and events are planned with precision and delivered in a challenging, fun, and engaging way.

- Hardware, so the girls always have access to their own laptops/tablets throughout the workshop experience.

You can find more about Girls Into Coding at https://girlsintocoding.com/
and about Avye at https://10tonolimit.com/

Thank you!

Avye & Helene