What is Code For Her?

Code For Her is a nine-week beginner coding workshop series for female and gender-diverse students, faculty, and staff at the Penn State University Park campus. The current workshop, hosted by the Penn State University Libraries, teaches participants the fundamentals of web development with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You can see sample syllabus from the Fall 2019 Workshop.

Our Story

Code for Her is inspired by Reshma Saujani’s Girls Who Code, a nationwide network of clubs and summer programs that instruct teenage girls in computer programming. After hearing Saujani speak at the opening session of the 2017 American Library Association’s (ALA) Annual Conference, Carmen began to investigate whether collegiate coding clubs for women existed.

Surprisingly, coding initiatives that are being conducted at universities and in academic libraries are 1) difficult to identify, and 2) when I did identify a few (George Washington University Libraries, University of Oklahoma, and Stanford University, for example), the workshops were based on a one-shot model or targeted specifically to a graduate student population. Additionally, the skills taught at some of the workshops were highly-specialized, prior knowledge was assumed, and the workshops were not targeted to female-identified individuals.

Our Mission

Code for Her is a nine-week workshop series in which women and gender-diverse Penn State students, faculty, and staff learn the basics of web development in three languages (HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript). The workshop series is free, although participants do need to bring their own laptop to participate. Through interactive instruction, group learning activities, and self-study materials, the intent of the workshop series is for participants to gain the confidence to pursue future self-education with a foundational knowledge of basic programming languages in a supportive, empowering environment.

I’ve loved the workshop! I can’t believe how empowering it is to figure out coding.

This unique learning opportunity provides an additional outlet for developing programming skills beyond the traditional curricular structures of single academic departments or self-guided tutorials. Additionally, the workshop series seeks to provide a space to amplify the voices of traditionally underrepresented populations in information technology and computing fields.