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Twin sisters Tatyana ( left and in the background) and Tyana (at right in foreground) work on a password-encryption problem at Girls Who Code at the MassMutual headquarters in Springfield. Both are 16 and soon to be juniors at Springfield Central High School.
(JIM KINNEY/ THE REPUBLICAN)
SPRINGFIELD - Sarah Brown and her team were on a summer field trip when they all had an idea for a project: a solar panel handbag that can recharge a cell phone as a woman strolls outdoors on a sunny day.
"What happens if your phone is dying and you don't have a car, or a place to plug it in," Brown, 17 and a soon-to-be senior at Sabis International Charter School in Springfield.
The trip was to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the solar purse is her team's project meant to put a capstone on their Girls Who Code experience.
Brown is one of 20 girls in this summer's Girls Who Code class at the MassMutual Financial Group. They get 250 hours of instruction in computer coding, robotics, web design and other technical skills. Working on group projects and presenting them to as many as 300 audience members builds soft-skills in public-speaking and teamwork.
The program runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. five days a week.
There is no cost to the girls and equipment is provided.
Aumauni Harris, 16, and a rising junior at Springfield Central High School, said the five weeks she had so far of the 7-week Girls Who Code program has opened her eyes to technology.
"I've learned that nothing is impossible," she said. "I've learned that it you have to keep trying. This is new for all of us and we will all get through it together."
MassMutual is hosting this summer session of Girls Who Code at its massive State Street office headquarters. Girls Who Code's national mission is to get more high-school girls interested in computer and engineering careers and majoring in computer science and similar fields in college.
The Girls Who Code participants hail mostly from Springfield, Enfield and surrounding towns, although a few commute from Amherst, said Yasmine Laurent, Girls Who Code program manger for Greater Boston.
This is the first Girls Who Code summer immersion program in Western Massachusetts, Laurent said. There are programs in eastern Massachusetts, but most centered literally on the tech hub of Cambridge's Kendall Square.
Girls Who Code is on a growth path, going from 19 summer immersion programs last year to 57 this year. Each one is done with a partner company in high tech.
Besides the summer immersion programs, Girls Who Code runs a network of coding clubs during the school year at high schools, libraries and community centers across the country
Since getting started in 2012, Girls Who Code has served more 3,860 girls in 29 states. Of those alumna, 90 percent of those now of college age are majoring in computer fields.
That's a big accomplishment because social pressure often keeps girls from pursuing the field. According to Girls Who Code, in 1984, 37 percent of all computer science graduates were women, but today that number is just 18 percent. Only 20 percent of Advanced Placement computer science test-takers are female, and 0.4 percent of high school girls express interest in majoring in Computer Science.
That can make it hard for places like MassMutual to recruit the IT staff it needs, said Angela Winkler, assistant vice president of IT Learning & Development at MassMutual Financial Group.
She said girls often become discouraged from studying mass and science.
"It's the stereotype of the IT professional working alone with the computers," she said. "It's not like that at all. All the projects are team projects."
Their teacher is Meagan Hiatt, a graduate student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
"I wish they had something like this when I was in High School," Hiatt said.
Twin sisters Tyana Medina , 16, and soon to be a junior at Springfield Central High School
Meagan Hiatt, teacher and a graduate student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute where she studies robotics engineering.
"I wish they had something like this when I was in high school," she said.
Sarah Brown, 17, and a senior at Sabis International Charter School in described the project their group is working on. It's a mobile app that can help a pedestrian keep track of anyone walking behind them using a mobile phone. The idea is to let people feel safer when out and about.
Laurent said she'll be back in Springfield in November or so meeting with high school guidance counselors and recruiting a 2016 class. Formal applications go out in January of next year. To be sure and get one, go to the www.girlswhocode.com webpage and fill out an interest form.