Girls Who Code

GWC is a nonprofit organization on a mission to close the gender gap in technology and to change the image of what a programmer looks likes and does. We’re building the largest pipeline of the future female engineers in the United States.

GWC Summer Immersion Program provides girls (ages 15-18) with opportunities to learn about life at Facebook/WhatsApp, while exposing them to role models in the tech field. Girls will engage in coding workshops, mentoring opportunities, field trips, and speaker sessions. Each week of the program covers projects related to computer science, such as art, storytelling, robotics, video games, web sites, and apps. After seven weeks of hard work, students will have the opportunity to showcase their final projects at a culminating graduation event that includes pitches, a graduation ceremony, and a science fair-style demo session. Students leave the program with a unique perspective on careers in technology and with the support of the GWC community to pursue Computer Science in college. 
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As the Facebook committee lead, I hosted the GWC Summer Immersion Program at Facebook HQ in California in summer 2017 and 2018. In addition to her normal duties at WhatsApp, I volunteered about 5 hours/week to lead a team of five Software Engineers and Analysts at Facebook to manage day to day program needs. I led the committee to organize events, such as the mentorship program, speaker’s series, workshops, Meet & Greet with parents, and the graduation. I was proud to serve as a role model and an inspiration for all women working in technology and pursuing their studies in technology.

We have received positive feedback from our attendees. Following are some of the feedback on having a direct access to Facebook through the program:

“What made this event great was the opportunity to connect and get to know the recruiters.”
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“Super energetic, really helped me build my resume to the best it could be!"

 Mana Nakagawa, Diversity Strategic Operations Manager at Facebook wrote:

“GWC Summer Immersion Program is one of our key company initiatives to increase the pipeline of girls in Computer Science and Engineering. Jean is the main lead for the Program Committee, which provided exceptional young girls with the exposure to CS content and opportunity to be mentored by our internal employees. It also enables our internal female software engineers to mentor, practice their leadership and influence, and give back to the community, which we repeatedly hear is important to women’s sense of fulfillment and pride. The Girls Who Code program is also a unique example of how Facebook Inc. partners with the external community to build a longer pipeline of girls in tech, and Jean plays a key leadership role in helping us brand ourselves externally as a company that is committed to these issues.” ​

Learn more about Girls Who Code.