By Reshma Saujani | CEO & Founder
Julia, a 15 year old from New York City, loves physics; she enjoys playing handball and basketball, and spends much of her time down the street at the local library. The oldest of five children, Julia’s family struggles to make ends meet. Her father’s job as a substitute custodian is less than stable. When she wasn't studying, Julia pitched in by handing out flyers for $7 an hour at a local foodbank.
As a member of the inaugural class of Girls Who Code, Julia spent 8 weeks, 8 hours a day with Girls Who Code instructors at AppNexus in NYC. Here, she learned to program robots in Python, build websites in HTML and video games in JavaScript. She learned about entrepreneurship, what it means to build a product and a company. She met 50 female engineers and entrepreneurs from Google, Twitter, Stanford…. And slowly but surely, she began to envision a new future for herself.
On graduation night at Google, Julia demoed her final project for an audience of engineers and entrepreneurs. Following the program, she took on three web design jobs. She is a girl who codes.
Julia demonstrates what's possible when girls pursue computer science—they are quick and enthusiastic learners, they share what they learn, and they apply their skills to make the world a better place. Thank you for supporting Girls Who Code, and thank you for supporting Julia.
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