Girls in Tech is a global nonprofit organization that engages and educates girls and women who want to learn more about technology. Adriana Gascoigne, founder and CEO of Girls in Tech, met up with John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, to discuss the organization and how it’s providing opportunities worldwide to help women learn to code.

Expanding opportunities

Gascoigne described on theCUBE how far she is reaching woman around the world.

“In the past two years, we experienced massive growth, mainly in the emerging markets. So we’ve perfected our curriculum in Silicon Valley. We pilot the programs out, coding courses, anything from Ruby on Rails, Joomla, Drupal, PHP, and then perfect it, then test it out with that market and customize it to the emerging market.so that we have all the nuances in mind and they can learn in the best way they know how.

“So we’ve been expanding a lot in African countries, Latin American countries, some European and Eastern European countries, and it is really exciting to provide these resources, skills and curriculum to people in places that have very little education, access to the role models, access to the curriculum and access to devices even. That is inspirational to me personally and has sort of fueled the next generation of Girls in Tech and expanded the opportunities.”

On-ramp for new coders

Gascoigne talked about spreading excitement about coding to all, not just tech people.

“Girls in Tech was one of the first programs that existed in Silicon Valley, specifically for the more cutting-edge participants or women coders. It’s really exciting to see the growth and demand not only in the United States but in the world. I feel that now that more women are getting into coding and experimenting with different coding languages, it’s actually seen as OK, it’s actually seen as cool, and they’re getting really excited about it.

“You have product marketers and product designers learning more about Ruby on Rails because, one, they want to learn how to do it themselves, and, two, they want to understand what their counterparts are working on so they can better understand product development in total. So I think it’s sort of this wave of excitement where ‘I can do it too’ and ‘Hey, it’s not as hard as everyone thinks,’ and so everyone’s a part of this coding party, so to speak, and sharing resources and collaborating.”

Trending code

Gascoigne explained which coding language is trending among women.

“Ruby on Rails seems to be very popular and not only amongst girls and women in the United States, but also around the world. It’s a very nimble language, so people are now using it — or I should say companies are now using it in their products.”

Join the party

Gascoigne revealed how the process begins with someone reaching out to her.

“Three interviews, then we do background checks, reference checks and then we have an EPK [electronic press kit] that basically has all of our curriculum, messaging, guidelines and everything that you need to know in a PDF. We try to keep it seamless and easy by keeping everything branded and correct, and then they customize it. We don’t want to give a cookie-cutter approach. What Silicon Valley does is great for Silicon Valley, but it’s not great for every other city around the world. … It’s customization based on aptitude or maturity of the tech ecosystem in that city.

“We basically allow them to run with it, and then, especially in the first six months, we plan the launch party, we have them get a calendar of events together based on what the need is there [in that city]. We get the government involved, institutions involved, we get incubators accelerators … it’s about community. It’s about building the ecosystems. You can’t do it alone. We need the help and support of all these other industry players.”

Aha moment

Responding to what is the coolest thing she’s seen so far, Gascoigne spoke about a recent event that was fun and productive.

“We did something really cool recently, the Super Bowl Hackathon. ESPN, IBM Bluemix and Watson teams came out and supported us. And we had over 175 applicants; we had 14 apps that were actually built and launched to enhance the experience of enthusiasts and football fans during their visit to San Francisco. It’s really neat to see over a three-day period; people spent the night, worked really hard in teams, we broke it up with some yoga and meditation just for a little fun, and it’s really neat to see everyone collaborate and build real time.

To learn more about Girls in Tech visit https://girlsintech.org.

Watch the video below to learn how Gascoigne and her organization are changing the world for women in tech.

Photo by SiliconANGLE