Black Girls Code announces coding program for young developers

Black Girls Code recently continued its partnership with GoldieBlox as a part of their shared mission to teach and encourage the following generation of developers through the free video-based academy Code Along. Their latest collaboration, Code Along Jr, launched at a live event in March in Los Angeles, is aimed toward young developers, in line with an April 2 press release. The host shall be child actress Kalani Jewel. It was designed for children aged seven to 10.

Black Girls Code CEO Christina Jones stated in a press release that the group’s latest enterprise and hosted by perfectly fitted.

“Together we can change the face of technology,” Jones said. “Kalani, as a lively and energetic 12-year-old, is the perfect host for Code Along Jr. It shows girls that technology is cool, not scary. It reaches them at their level and shows them that they can do anything they want. This is incredibly important because technology is at the heart of everything we do and Black girls absolutely have so much to offer as entrepreneurs, executives, creators and artists of the future.”

GoldieBlox founder and CEO Debra Sterling said in a press release that the partnership with Black Girls Code provides similar synergy to the collaboration between Jewel and Black Girls Code.

“GoldieBlox lives at the intersection of technology, fun and female empowerment,” Sterling said. “Collaborating with Black Girls Code on Code Along Jr. is a natural solution for us. We are excited to help girls experience the magic of technology-enabled creativity and support them on their educational journey.”

GoldieBlox is a toy company that focuses on interactive toys for girls. According to her websiteits mission “is to reach girls at a young age and introduce them (and often their parents) to science, technology, engineering and math.”

The Black Girl Code is filling a critical need within the technology industry. As reported, only 2% of STEM employees are black women. Moreover, only two Fortune 500 corporations have Black women as CEOs.

Jones told Fortune that the group’s mission is to prioritize inclusion and variety by empowering Black girls to feel a way of belonging within the tech industry despite the dismal variety of Black women within the space.

“We need girls in the room; we need more integration in the room,” Jones said. “But we do that by creating a space where people themselves can understand what their own value proposition is — that they are in this room because they are smart and capable and creative.”

Jones continued, “I actually cannot express how inspiring it was to face there and see little Black girls are available saying they were enthusiastic about coding and leave saying they wanted to return back each day for the remaining of their classes. life.”

Jones also described her ambitions: “I want to create tables for these girls, so they can create tables, so we can affect change on a large scale. Because momentum is important – once we hopefully get going, it will be like a snowball effect.”

We encourage young programmers to follow and subscribe to the web site Black Girls Code YouTube Channel and follow him on social media for updates on each Code Along projects.