Today I wanted to add to a young girls Voice. Avye Couloute (Girls Into Coding) a 15 yr old girl started a community interest company (similar to a non profit) to encourage your girls to get into coding. She had been studying it since she was 7 and noticed that she was one of the only girls in the room at many of the training sessions. She is on a mission to engage 1000 girls ever year. At 10 years old she went from attending the events to preparing and delivering them. The things she covers in her workshops are coding, physical computing, robotics and 3D printing. This is an amazing young woman. She understands what her life is about and who she is! Does this mean that things will be easy for her No it doesn’t. But with her attitude she will learn and grow from the problems that arise.
So the problem Avye found is that at 5 and 6 boys and girls have an equal interest in tech. But at 9 there is a significant gap. As the gap grows the girl's interest and confidence drops. Due to this issue women remain underrepresented in the tech world. The numbers show that only 23% of people working in STEM. and only 5% of leadership positions are held by women.
Avye has won a number of achievements:
2017 “best working Device” for Micro:bit
2018 Coolest Project UK
2019 Princess Diana Award
2019 Legacy Award
2020 Everywoman in Technology
So what can you do?
These ladies are not much different from you; they have dreams and goals. They also have problems and traumatic things that have happened in their life. They, as Humans, have thoughts that run through their heads telling them they are not good enough, I bet. Let us concentrate not on our differences, or the things that set us apart. Let us concentrate on the likeness, or similarities that can bring us together.
Now I hope each one of you will hear me when I say how much I appreciate each of you. I’m grateful that you are spending your time with me today so we can continue to develop this friendship. You mean a lot to me and I am glad you are here. I know some of the things you have overcome to get here. If this message has been helpful today, please share it with a friend who may need to hear it. If you haven't yet, do yourself and me a favor and subscribe to this podcast also join the Facebook group. Here is the spot to click and set up a time so we can discuss how you can use these tools and others to get your amazing life!
