Coding's just for boys? Yeah right, says new group

Learning to code was something that only came to Renée Higgins later in life.

Higgins, a web developer for the City of Greater Sudbury, learned programming after she started university.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do in high school,” she said.

She had an interest in biology and chemistry, but was less interested in the potential career paths in the hard sciences.

When she started at Laurentian University, Higgins took a wide variety of courses until she discovered programming.

“That was where I discovered my passion for information technology,” she said. “As a girl who didn't know what she wanted to do, and eventually found her way here, I wish someone could have come to me earlier and told me about how great this field is.”

Now, thanks to Girls Learning to Code, Higgins is getting to do just that — tell people how great information technology is — and maybe inspire someone to follow a similar career path.

She'll be able to teach them valuable skills that have become increasingly in demand in most workplaces.

“Even if you don't become a coder, it's a very important skill to have because of where the world is heading,” Higgins said.

Girls Learning to Code is a national organization, affiliated with Ladies Learning to Code, that teaches girls to be builders of technology, rather than just consumers.

With a workshop on May 30, Sudbury will become the 20th city in Canada to host a Girls Learning to Code chapter.

Samantha Onuska, a masters of education student at Nipissing University, started the Sudbury chapter after she found out about the organization while doing research for her thesis, which looks at digital literacy.

“I decided it was something we have to have in Sudbury,” she said.

On May 30, Higgins will lead a day-long workshop at the Greater Sudbury Public Library main branch (74 Mackenzie Street) where she will teach girls ages of eight and 13 how to build a website using basic HTML and CSS (cascading style sheets), the same computer languages professional developers use to build websites. The class has room for 24 people.

Using a tool called Mozilla Thimble, students will be able to write code on one side of their computer screen, and see the results in real-time on the other.

In addition to Higgins, a number of mentors will be on hand to help the girls out.

In addition to the May 30 workshop, Girls Learning to Code hopes to host a local event for National Learn to Code Day on Sept. 26, and a workshop for boys and girls in October.

But Onuska said she is still looking for sponsors to help support the October workshop.

It's still possible to register for the May 30 workshop by clicking here.

For more information about Girls Learning code visit girlslearningcode.com.