Come see how inspiring our youth helps to create a better future for technology! Our session will be divided into three portions. First, we want to give a presentation outlining the motives behind our efforts. Some of the questions we will address include: why high school students? Why is diversity in technology important? What are some of the factors that prevent girls from participating in computer science, and how did we address these in our program? The second portion of the session will be presentations from the Hi-Tech Teens students themselves. They will showcase the result of 6 weeks of work, with program demonstrations. The final portion of the session will be a short Q&A session with the students, to give them a chance to reflect on the program and share their experiences with the audience.

Speaker: Betsey McFarland

Organization: Wade Edwards Learning Lab/WiCS@NCSU

Speaker Bio: The Wade Edwards Foundation & Learning Lab (WELL) and NC State University Women in Computer Science (WiCS) organization have partnered together to create a program to introduce young people to the exciting world of programming. Holding mentorship sessions once a week with two sections (one exclusively reserved for females, the other co-ed), the program hopes to inspire its participants to overcome social and experience-based barriers to succeed in one of the most in-demand fields of the modern age. Representatives from both organizations as well as student participants will present an overview of the program, lessons learned, challenges faced, future goals and most importantly – the experience of the young people involved in the program.

Session Tags: Mentorship, Student Presentations, Women in Computer Science, Diversity, Programming, Technology Skills, Positive Youth Development