New to White Station, the Girls Who Code club welcomes girls to gather every Thursday for an hour and refine their computer science skills.

“The Girls Who Code program has a lot of resources available to teach them different coding languages like JavaScript, Python, Scratch, and many other languages. It allows beginners, intermediate and advanced to all come together, work together, collab and do an end-of-club project, allowing everyone to get that experience,” club sponsor and leader Darius James said.

When students Grace Chang (10) and Whitney Chen (10) expressed interest in starting a coding club, Mr. James recommended this free organization to the girls. Soon enough, the club was up and running for the 2019-2020 school year.

“We wanted to offer more opportunities for women to expand in computer science since that’s traditionally a ‘men’s thing,’” Chang said.

Every club meeting begins by highlighting an important woman in computer science history. James explains that this is influential to the girls since it shows them that their abilities are not limited to their gender, background, or ethnicity.

“If girls want to join throughout the year, they can since they (the lessons) are individual. We have a lesson plan, so girls can catch up at home if they would like,” Chen said.

Every girl gets a programming activity each week with assistance from James and other members of the club available. There are 15 meetings throughout the year, each with an agenda for all girls. If you missed the chance to join at the beginning of the year, there is no need to worry since there are plenty of places for you to start at.

“I was excited to start this since my desire was to start a coding club, and Girls Who Code has a curriculum for girls of all background knowledge,” James said.