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BYU students to hold free coding camp for girls in high school

By Ashtyn Asay - Daily Herald | Mar 10, 2022

Allyson Irwin

The tech industry is male-dominated, but one Brigham Young University student hopes to introduce teen girls to the wealth of tech career possibilities this summer.

Allyson Irwin, an information systems student at BYU, will host a free coding camp for high school-aged girls who are interested in an introduction to coding.

Code Adventures will be a three-day camp designed for girls with no experience in technology and coding. The camp will take place from June 8-10 from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Entrata building in Lehi.

“They can expect to understand a lot more of what is technology and to kind of get a basic understanding of a few different fields and to get a wide understanding of all the different career options within technology,” Irwin said.

Participants will learn about coding through hands-on activities, games and workshops while being introduced to career opportunities in technology.

“In addition to the hands-on experience we’ll have industry speakers come in, all females, come and talk about what they do at their job, give some demos,” Irwin said. “Then at the end of the three days, we’ll have a Q-and-A panel with about five to seven females that are in the tech industry that are doing a lot less common fields but that are still pretty popular.”

Irwin came up with the idea for Code Adventures last summer when she was looking to teach at a girls coding camp. When she couldn’t find many options she decided to start her own.

The focus of the camp isn’t to teach coding, per se, but rather to get girls interested in the world of technology and introduce it as a possible future career.

“It’s more focused on introducing them, exposing them to like different coding options and different careers and jobs that we’ve had,” Irwin said. “So last summer I kind of developed the idea and then ever since then I’ve just been working on getting it ready for this June.”

Code Adventure is still seeking out sponsors and mentors for the camp. Local businesses that would like to help sponsor Code Adventures can do so by going to their website. Those interested can register for the camp on the website, as well.

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