HomeInnovationsHelping Young Girls to Code Beyond Perfection Innovations Helping Young Girls to Code Beyond Perfection For a long time, growing up, i wanted to be perfect. I thought that was the only way to be. Anything short of that seemed unworthy; I sincerely believed you have to be perfect in beauty especially to be celebrated. I would have given anything to know this lady at that time. It would have helped me understand life quicker and live better. “Everyone is comparing lives on social media and wants the perfect body, perfect image, perfect outfit, perfect life – we’re striving for this perfection, and it’s so unhealthy because there’s no such thing as perfection.” – Emily Atack Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code She is a New York Times bestselling author and the brains behind the famous TED Talk, “Teach girls bravery, not perfection.” The daughter of refugees graduated from Harvard University and Yale Law School. In 2010, she became the first Indian-American woman to run for Congress. “When I lost, I wanted to continue to make a difference,” Saujani told Adweek. “I figured the best way that I could do that is by creating opportunities for girls.” Two years later, she started the nonprofit, Girls Who Code, aimed at increasing the number of women in the computer science field. Saujani was born in Illinois. She is of Gujarati Indian descent. Saujani’s parents lived in Uganda, prior to being expelled along with other persons of Indian descent in the early 1970s by Idi Amin.They settled in Chicago. Saujani attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she graduated in 1997 with majors in Political Science and Speech Communication. She attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where she received a Master of Public Policy in 1999, and Yale Law School, where she received her Juris Doctor in 2002. Girls Who Code is a nonprofit organization which aims to support and increase the number of women in computer science by equipping young women with the necessary computing skills to pursue 21st century opportunities. The organization works toward closing the gender employment difference in technology, and to change the image of what a programmer looks like. They host a seven-week Summer Immersion Program, a two-week specialized Campus Program, after school Clubs, and a New York Times best-selling Penguin 13-book series. Girls Who Code was founded in 2012 during her run for the United States Congress when she noticed that schools along her campaign route lacked girls in computer science classrooms. The organization runs programs during the academic year teaching high school girls computing skills like programming, robotics and web design, with sessions including projects and trips to companies like Twitter and Facebook. There are now over 1500 Girls Who Code clubs across America, with the organization aiming to teach one million girls to code by 2020. By December 2014, three thousand students had completed a Girls Who Code program, 95% of whom went on to major in computer science at university. The organization is sponsored by a number of software and technology companies including AOL, Google, and Microsoft, and in August 2014 received a $1 million contribution from AT&T. Saujani is married to entrepreneur Nihal Mehta, who was a co-founder of ad tech startup LocalResponse and now is a co-founding partner of Eniac Ventures, a seed stage venture capital firm. Saujani is a practicing Hindu. They have a son born in February 2015. Saujani has been working with Nevada Senator, Jacky Rosen on drafting legislation to help encourage legislation states to report data on their gender diversity in technology. This is in effort to help bridge the gender gap in technology. Saujani is the author of Women Who Don’t Wait in Line: Break the Mold, Lead the Way, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2013, and Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World, published by Viking in August 2017, and Brave, Not Perfect: Fear Less, Fail More, and Live Bolder in 2018. Support PisonTechAfrica.com For inspiring tech content and articles, PisonTechAfrica.com is the platform to go. Great content takes a lot of resources; we are poised to motivate young start-ups and give them leverage with our platform. It is a platform for inspiring tech entrepreneurs to display their talents. Africa is the next big thing for technology. PisonTechAfrica.com is the tech media platform committed to positioning Africa in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Donate Ayinla Oluwajumoke Toyosi Share This Previous ArticleEventBrite CEO Julia Hartz: Founded the Company with her Husband and it Became Successful Next ArticleHow to Become a Successful Tech Entrepreneur April 28, 2021
