Transcriber: Vanessa Kim Reviewer: lisa thompson
All right. Now, I want you all to close your eyes.
Okay. Now picture a programmer.
All right. Open your eyes.
Now, with a show of your hands, how many of you guys thought of this?
The infamous, socially awkward man, perhaps in baggy clothing,
hunched over a laptop, hacking and coding all night long.
Okay, so a lot of you.
Now, how many of you guys thought of this?
Female teens coding as part of an organization called Black Girls CODE.
So, not many of you.
How many of you thought of this?
An 82-year-old Japanese woman coding iOS apps.
How about this?
Karlie Kloss, a supermodel.
She teaches coding to thousands of girls every summer.
Okay. So, once again, not many of you.
Let’s look at the facts.
As of now, coding is not very inclusionary.
As a female, I represent one of about 24% of women programmers in the United States.
In Silicon Valley, African-Americans make up only about 4% of programmers,
while Hispanic people make up about 5%.
Why is there such a gap?
In part, according to Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code,
this is because the image of a programmer has been embedded in our minds.
And those who don’t fit that stereotype, aka Freddy,
are not given the same encouragement and outlets
to pursue technological programming.
In fact, in middle school, I, too, was intimidated by technology.
I had heard of the dangers of artificial intelligence taking over our world,
and I wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.
In fact, after I half-heartedly joined a middle school coding club,
I was surprised by how much I actually liked it.
I had just never been exposed to it.
Since then, I have coded over 50 applications,
interned at a software company,
and founded my own computer science education platform called TheCodeBakery
to teach students from over seven countries to code.
Okay, now, you might be wondering,
How does diversity in technology pertain to me?
What can I possibly do as a high schooler to change this statistic?
Well, there’s actually a pretty simple answer to this.
Everyone should learn to code.
As Gen Z, you guys represent the face of the next generation.
By starting to code now, you’re preparing yourself to change this number,
both in diversity of background and thought.
Okay. Now you might be wondering,
Well, Hiya, okay.
Is the only reason that I should learn to code to change a number?
Well, no.
Computer science is how the world runs.
Your computers, this projector, remote learning,
all of this wouldn’t be possible
without thousands of people coding these technologies.
In addition, by learning to code, you gain a unique digital literacy
and you get to build stuff from scratch.
But most importantly, by learning to code,
you gain skills useful to many other domains of life.
According to Steve Jobs, coding teaches you how to think.
This is very true because coding is inherently creative problem-solving.
There is never really just one way to solve a problem.
Through learning to code,
you learn to try and fail when your code doesn’t work,
and try and fail some more.
It teaches you to be a better programmer, problem solver,
and someone who just never gives up.
Second, according to Codecademy,
which is an online learning computer science platform,
more lines of code does not translate to better code.
Similarly in life, working harder does not mean working more efficiently.
Lastly, and most importantly, contrary to popular myth, aka Freddy,
as I showed you in the beginning of this presentation,
coding is not done solo.
What? In fact, coding is best done with others.
Looking back,
my first exposure to programming was at a middle school coding club.
And I realized that it wasn’t so much actually writing the code itself
or even how the project runs,
but the chance to collaborate with others to solve problems
that sparked my interest in programming.
Similarly, in coding, you can collaborate in open source
and collaborate in coding competitions called hackathons.
You can also give and get help in online community forums.
It teaches you responsibility and teamwork,
crucial skills that are useful to many other domains of life,
both in school, the workforce, and beyond.
I would like to stress
that you don’t necessarily have to be in the technology industry to code.
In fact, coding is a way to achieve your own goals.
For example, I am passionate about the environment,
so, I built an app to determine water quality.
Similarly, do you love writing? Code your own blog!
Love video games? Create your own video games!
Driven by politics? Create an AI fact-checker!
The list goes on and on, and really, the possibilities with coding are endless.
Let’s go back to Karlie Kloss, the supermodel I was talking about.
As a supermodel, you would think
that she has absolutely nothing to do with technology.
But after taking a coding class in middle school
and programming a drone to deliver her a cookie,
she became hooked on it.
And ever since then,
she has been running annual coding workshops for thousands of girls.
In an interview with Business Insider, she told the interviewer,
“Coding is an important language,
as important to learn as your mother tongue.”
All right. Now, if you haven’t started to code yet, ask yourself why.
Is there something that intimidates you about technology?
Perhaps, that stereotypical programmer look?
Or maybe you just don’t know where to start.
Don’t worry, there are plenty of free resources to choose from.
Let’s start with programming languages, or what you write code with.
I recommend starting out with Scratch,
which is a block-based, game-based programming language,
where you can create your own games and animations.
Alternatively, you can start with Python,
which is a general-purpose programming language that reads kind of like English.
To learn how to build your own projects, you can check out TheCodeBakery,
a peer-learning platform I founded that teaches kids to code
via YouTube tutorials from over seven countries.
You can also check out clubs right here on the Amador and Foothill campuses,
such as the Society of Women Engineers and AV UI/UX design.
I have been teaching kids to code for about three years now
as young as elementary schoolers.
And I have found that what drives them
is not so much actually writing the code itself,
but the chance to unleash their creativity in designing their own games,
and collaborate with others on a process, struggle through problems,
and finally feel the satisfaction of sharing their project
for the the world to see.
Coding is a unique form of art.
It’s a way to express yourself
in the language that everyone can and should learn.
Time and time again,
people like Michael Bloomberg have said that coding has changed their lives.
Of course, coding is not easy,
but is anything when you start out?
Through learning to code, I’ve learned so much about myself,
grown my logic and problem-solving skills,
and had the chance to collaborate with people from across the world.
If people ranging from a supermodel to an 82-year-old woman
to elementary schoolers can learn to code,
I believe so can you.
Thank you.
(Applause)