Tech-Girl Monthly: November 2014

Imagine, Discover, Create

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Tech-Girl Monthly: November 2014

Journey of a Tech-Girl

In August 2012, I created a blog post about my idea of wanting to start Tech-Girls to see if anyone else was interested and/or had ideas to share. This got me connected to people in Charlottesville, Virginia, but also in California, Michigan, Oregon, England, Ireland and beyond. The past week and half, I have gotten to connect real-time with some of the very first online supporters & cheerleaders for Tech-Girls, as well as some new fans, in London at Mozfest & in Ireland at a Women in Tech event at Microsoft. I also got the opportunity to share my journey as a tech-girl.

Have an idea for an app, game, online tool and/or hardware hack that would help improve a class, a school, even the whole educational system? Charlottesville Startup Weekend EDU, November 14-16, is a great opportunity to bring your idea to life or help somebody else with theirs!

This event is being coordinated through Albemarle County Public Schools, bringing together a wide variety of people who are passionate about solving problems and adding value to the education space. I participated in Cvilleâ€™s last SWEDU and it was a real life changer for me and Tech-Girls. For more inspiration, check out the story of two 6th grade girls who won a Startup Weekend with their game, Generation Code - aimed at teaching kids how to code.

Registration is required and you can contact charlottesvilleedu@startupweekend.org from your .edu email address for a discount code!

Spotlight: Digital Girls of the Year

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting the 2014 Digital Girls of the Year, Lauren Boyle of Ireland (ten & under) and Manon Van Hoorebeke of Belgium (eleven & older)! Both girls were introduced to coding through their local CoderDojo organization.

Lauren is the founder of Cool Kids Studio, which revolves around a set of three websites she created to encourage children aged 3 to 12 to build life skills, eat healthy and become makers. You can read more about Laurenâ€™s accomplishments in the SiliconRepublic.

Manon started coding with Scratch and is now coding Arduino projects. She is a CoderDojo coach, helping kids and especially girls to learn to code. She is passionate about getting more girls interested in tech and blogs about her adventures in tech at Better be a digital girl. You can read more about Manonâ€™s accomplishments in FlandersToday.

Activities & Events

Live & Local

November 14-16 - Charlottesville Startup Weekend EDU. The event starts at 6:30pm on Friday at Monticello High School. Registration is required and you can contact charlottesvilleedu@startupweekend.org from your .edu email address for a discount code!
November 15 - Girls' Geek Day. Meriwether Lewis Elementary School (9am to noon). This event is open to all ages, but if you are a 3rd grader or younger, please plan on bringing one of your parents too. Registration required.
Ongoing - Tech-Girls before & after school programs for middle school girls are in high gear. We are collaborating with GEMS at Jouett & Henley. We've also got programs at Sutherland and Computers4Kids. Contact us for more info.
Ongoing - Tinkersmiths Makerspace hosts a wide range of workshops that are open to a variety of ages and experience levels. Check out their latest meetups.

Virtual & Global

Ongoing - Made with Code for classes & workshops geared toward girls.
September 1 - February 15 - ProjectCSGIRLS, the nationâ€™s biggest computer science competition for middle school girls. Build something with tech that can help solve an imminent social problem.
Upcoming - Technovation Challenge. A global technology entrepreneurship program for young women everywhere ages 10 to 23. Start recruiting your team of up to 5 girls now! Pre-registration available.

Miral Kotb brings together dance & code to create iluminate

Girls changing the world with code - made with code

Create a mobile game with Appmaker

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2014 Tech-Girls, This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
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