Interview: Reshma Saujani, Founder & CEO of Girls Who Code

Reshma Saujani is the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, a national nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in the technology and engineering sectors. Their goal is to harnesses the untapped potential in adolescent girls and channel it towards innovation in STEM-related fields. The program consists of a summer-long immersion program for high school juniors and seniors in addition to clubs for girls all over the country. Saujani has a rich background in nonprofit and finance and has been featured on NBC and FOX for all her work towards empowering women, not to mention that she, her dog, and her newborn baby are beloved by social media users everywhere.

I was a proud member of the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program Class of 2014 and have written, spoken, and advocated for the program at various points this past year. I had the opportunity to interview Saujani and discuss her work, how Girls Who Code is growing and what she hopes lies ahead for the popular nonprofit.

Alexandra Kukoff: In their formative years, boys are encouraged to pursue STEM fields far more than girls are, which ties into often inaccurate stereotypes that boys can visualize beyond toys and think critically while girls cannot. Why do you think these stereotypes exist beyond the masculine v. feminine gender roles in our society today and how can we eradicate them?

Reshma Saujani: I think unfortunate stereotypes like that come from popular culture. There’s a convenient narrative out there that coders are always geeky guys in dark basements, and we’ve collectively allowed it to persist because the field has traditionally been so male-dominated. When we reach more girls, we see just how inaccurate stereotypes are, so when we continue to scale Girls Who Code to even more girls, these stereotypes will quickly become a thing of the past.

AK: Would Girls Who Code consider expanding to middle school and elementary school girls? Why or why not?

RS: We’re still a relatively new organization — we were only founded in 2012. At the moment, we reach girls of all ages through our Girls Who Code Clubs, and last year, a challenge we hosted through Samsung was won by middle school girls. But we’re always looking to introduce the summer program to more girls: there’s simply too much work to be done for us to leave anything off the table!

AK: How do you think a female perspective on the different subsets of Computer Science betters the field overall?

RS: Any industry is most innovative and forward-thinking when it receives input from a variety of perspectives; having a woman on board provides an edge to any team looking to create products that stand out in a marketplace. Unfortunately, many companies within the tech industry lack this edge because women are vastly underrepresented. The most important thing we can do to achieve this diversity of perspective is to get more women at the table.

AK: A lot of adolescent girls feel that if they aren’t using their computer science knowledge to create the next Facebook or Twitter, then they aren’t putting their skills to good use. How can adolescent girls apply the skills and critical thinking processes they learn in Girls Who Code to every area of their lives, regardless of whether or not they want to enter computer science?

RS: Girls Who Code doesn’t exist solely to discover the next great female technology icon, although that would be great! In addition to coding, the girls at our program learn to pitch ideas and products, present themselves professionally, and interact with colleagues at every level of a company. We exist not just to teach computer science, but to equip girls with the skills and confidence they need to compete in the 21st- century workforce.

AK: I’ve noticed that Girls Who Code is rapidly expanding to cities that aren’t seen as giant tech centers and thus providing access to that world for girls who might be interested in technology but might not have the resources to pursue their interest. Can you tell me more about how Girls Who Code is tapping previously untapped potential?

RS: Almost every girl we reach is stirring with untapped potential, no matter where she lives. By 2020, there will be 1.4 million jobs available in the technology industry but women educated in the United States are only on pace to fill 3% of them. If that statistic is to change, we’ll have to recruit and inspire as many girls as possible, and need to search for the talent and potential in as many places of the world as possible.

AK: During my time at Girls Who Code, I noticed that some concepts would click immediately for some girls, while other girls took a little longer to grasp things. How does Girls Who Code tailor its curriculum to suit the needs of each and every girl looking to truly understand computer science?

RS: No matter what one’s entry level to our program is, a great education comes from a great teacher. That’s why we recruit the industry’s top female engineers and entrepreneurs to teach our girls, and we believe that the teachers we work with are among the best in the business.

AK: What’s on track for Girls Who Code?

RS: In our three years of operation, we’ve already reached more than 2,000 girls, many of whom go on to institutions like Harvard, Columbia, MIT, Stanford, Brown, Princeton, Brandeis, and UC Berkeley and intern at eminent tech companies such as Gilt Groupe, AOL, Andreessen Horowitz, and Microsoft. Every girl we inspire reaches her greatest potential through our program and 100% of alumnae pursuing computer science in college — many of whom doing so via scholarships from Bloomberg and Google — named Girls Who Code as a major factor in their decision to do so. 90% of our alumnae stated that if not for Girls Who Code, they might not have found their true calling or realized what they were capable of. In the next few years, we hope to help the next generation of women innovate, think outside the box, and to realize everything they can do equipped with the right skill-set.

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What do you think, Smart Girls? Have you participated in a program that encouraged you to pursue your efforts in STEM? Tell us about a positive mentoring experience that you’ve had in the comments!

Featured Image Credit: Women Who Don’t Wait In Line

Alex Kukoff is a 16-year-old college student and writer whose publication credits include Seventeen Magazine, the New York Times Learning Network, Scholastic, and Johns Hopkins among others. She is deaf in one ear, and has advocated for deaf rights on ABC and in Hearing Health Magazine, and was awarded a substantial grant from the clothing company ANNTaylor and the Hillary Clinton-founded organization Vital Voices to continue her advocacy. Read more about her here.