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Del Mar College offering coding classes to encourage girls in S.T.E.M

Posted at 5:25 PM, Jul 17, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-17 20:36:39-04

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX — A camp engineered to inspire.

Del Mar Colleges Smart Girlz Coding Camp teaches young women how to program and code robots.

“Using these dolls they learn and demystify,” said Barbara Dufrain, Computer Science professor. “This is all they do they use block code to create the different lines polygons.”

Girls get to learn the skills to fly an unmanned aircraft system, or more commonly known as drones.

Computer science professor Barbara Dufrain says the week-long camp is designed to spark interest and increase the number of female students who choose to pursue careers in the stem field.

Camp leaders even asked five girls who came to the camp last year to return this year, but this time as mentors to encourage other girls to gravitate towards a life in coding.

“We all had lots of fun memories and this year we were going to get to be mentors and help other little girls learn how to code,” said camper Gabriela Ramirez. “Guys are always saying that girls can't do this and girls can't do that but we actually can do all that stuff.”

By next year, there will be over 1.4 million jobs in computer science according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But colleges are only on track to produce one third of qualified graduates for those jobs, and only a fraction of that are women.

“Dedicated to empowering the women in South Texas and be prepared for the industry that's coming and moving into our community,” said Dufrain.

To sign up for the camp for 2020, you can call 361-698-1093