On Saturday October 10, 2015, Chatham University’s Business & Entrepreneurship Department hosted one of Pittsburgh’s first coding workshops exclusively for women. This workshop was organized by Django Girls, a non-profit organization that empowers women by providing programming training, tools, resources, and support. In addition to Chatham, Google, IdeaFoundry and Schell Games also sponsored this event.
Dr. Rachel Chung, Director of Business Programs at Chatham, was a mentor for the event. She notes, “Coding is the new literacy, and the training develops computational thinking that has broad implications beyond programming. We at Chatham are committed to advancing women through education; and computational skills are a critical element for success in the digital age. Hosting Django Girls Pittsburgh and supporting their mission at Chatham has been a great way to advance the mission of Chatham’s Business and Entrepreneurship Department. It is incredible to see so many women taking the initiative to explore the power of coding!”
Django Girls’ mission is to bring more women into the world of technology and increase diversity in the Django community. Their mission is reflected in the experience of Emily Packer, MBA student at Chatham University, who attended the workshop. Emily has “wanted to learn to code for a couple years now, but felt really intimidated. Attending the Django Girls workshop targeting women with no coding experience made me feel like I was on a level-playing field and could jump in.” She was grateful that the workshop was free, mentioning she “hasn’t been willing to spend a lot of money on a coding class because I didn’t want to lose my investment if I just wasn’t any good. This lets me get my feet wet, so I could get a better idea of what I want to accomplish with coding.”
Alyssa Fox, an undergraduate student at Chatham who is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Management, also attended the workshop. This experience helped her to better “understand the organizational and fundamental elements of coding. I left with a better understanding of the effort and skills needed to succeed in web and application development. The tutorial is always available to me for reference and practice. It has remained an excellent tool as I begin to move forward in building my knowledge of business technologies.”
For more information on Django Girls, to schedule your workshop, or attend online tutorials check out their website. You can also keep up with current Django events by following their Facebook page!
This workshop on coding was one of the many valuable networking and learning opportunities offered by Chatham’s Business and Entrepreneurship Department. The department hosts regular events and workshops to promote learning opportunities for students, faculty and area professionals. This also provides students with insight into potential business careers and related industries in the Pittsburgh area.
