Looking for a fun summer experience? Look no further. Kode with Klossy offers a wonderful learning experience for young girls ages 13-18 interested in computer science and technology.
April 28th, 2020 Writer: Misheal Saah Editor: Zareen Tasnim Summer Opportunities
Still deciding what to do over your long summer break? Or are you interested in starting to explore computer science and technology as a pursuit? Whether it's either, both or something else, Karlie Kloss’ coding camp is definitely something to look into. It’s offered at multiple locations around the US.
Kode with Klossy coding camp, offers two main courses to young women ages 13-18: Web Development, and Mobile App Development. In the Web Development course, young women get a chance to learn HTML, CSS, and Javascript for the purpose of building websites that are both functional and user-friendly through a series of various lessons. In the Mobile App Development course, you’re introduced to learning the basics of Swift to build functional applications you are later able to publish to the AppStore.
There’s more to the camp than just learning. During these two weeks, you will be surrounded by motivated women who are eager to learn computer science skills, and are driven by creativity to build very original apps or websites. Being surrounded by people with similar interests helps push yourself beyond your limits letting you discover that you can do more than you believe. The friendships you build within the two week sessions are long-lasting and meaningful. Another great part of this is building your relationships with the Instructors as well as the instructor assistants who are former Kode with Klossy scholars.
Along with knowledgeable instructors, scholars get the chance to meet inspiring women that use computer science and technology in their daily lives, careers, and companies. For example, Amber Venz, named Glamour Magazine's Woman of the Year for Technology, discussed her mixing of fashion and computer science that helped her become an entrepreneur and founder of her own brand, Like To Know It. Other female speakers come from other well known companies like Adidas and SAP to discuss how they became interested, their work, and what they did to get to their success in these various fields, along with advice to help the future generation of young girls succeed in STEM related fields.
It’s evident in today’s world that technology and computer science fields tend to lack the presence of women. For example, in the United States, only 18% of CS bachelor degrees are from women. The lack of representation in the field could have some damaging effects to our society as a whole. For example, prior to the remodeling of cars for lowering deadly outcomes, crash-dummies were only designed on the average male, rather than any individual, causing women to be disproportionately at risk of a fatal car crash than men. This is only one of many examples of how a lack of representation of women could lead to life-threatening events.
Karlie Kloss’s pursuit to increase this percentage is important to growing the number of women who participate and gain a voice in these male-dominated career paths. As Helena Suric suggests, the Head Partnerships and Communications Director, the KWK camp is “a non-profit focused on creating learning experiences and opportunities for young women that increase their confidence and inspire them to pursue their passions in a technology driven world.”
Taking a step to learn something new, whether it's out of the ordinary or of interest to you, could help open up many doors and help you build networking connections that could prove worthy in the long run.
If you need anything more to convince you, attending the camp offers a lot of free gadgets like computer stickers, water bottles, and other cool accessories (depending on location), along with the chance of meeting Karlie Kloss herself.
If you’re interested in learning about more opportunities, check out their website at https://www.kodewithklossy.com/!
