I am a New Yorker who loves listening to music, viewing art, and traveling. I’m also a Girls Who Code alumni who helped organized the first-ever all digital #MarchForSisterhood.
As a high schooler, I participated in Youth Insights Leaders at the Whitney Museum of American Art, contributed to a teen-led event planning committee called Museum Teen Summit, and then joined the Girls Who Code community.
At 16 years old, I remember being baffled by how little I knew about how the internet functioned. I reflected on my relationship with social media and recognized its potential beyond the act of scrolling. You know the feeling when you’re consuming content on social media, but have a limited understanding of its algorithmic makeup? Probably not, but this school of thought led me to Girls Who Code. The Summer Immersion Program (SIP) at Goldman Sachs deepened my understanding of computer science and engineering. At the time, I had aspirations of immersing myself in the world of art, fashion, and aesthetics–not code. Now, however, I’m learning how to incorporate my creativity with code. The #MarchForSisterhood is an example of that.
After high school, empowered by Girls Who Code and inspired to start making change, I took a gap year. During that time, I partnered with UNICEF and Refugees Welcome to Dinner to shift the narrative around the global refugee crisis, collaborated with the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and the Department of Education to reduce single use plastic in New York City public schools, and imagined a future with Sisterh>>d alongside Girls Who Code.
In truth, I believe I owe an enormous debt to Girls Who Code for incubating the community of young women who will become leaders in tech and beyond. Right now, fewer than 1 in 5 computer science graduates are women. If we want the next generation of women to feel capable and valued, we need organizations like Girls Who Code and we need sisterhood.
That’s why, this International Day of the Girl, we are marching together online. I march for a safe and equitable future for all women. I march because we need to invest in the potential of young women, and to listen to what they have to say. I march for women of varying backgrounds, identities, and experiences.
We have mustered up the courage necessary to shift paradigms, and now is the time for action. Today, we march for sisterhood to ensure that girls of the future can innovate without question.