Greenville Renaissance Scholars (GRS) is gearing up to provide an educational opportunity local middle school-aged girls can take advantage starting this fall — the Girls Who Code after school program.
Scheduled to run Oct. 19 to April 2021, middle school aged girls in Washington County who have an interest in coding — building things on the computer and getting computers to do different tasks — will be able to participate in the program at no cost.
GRS Executive Director Alexandra Melnick talked about the benefits of the program and how it’s one of GRS’ latest initiatives that aims to close the tutoring gap for those students in Washington County.
The program will be administered virtually and participants who may need a compatible device will have Chromebooks provided for them.
Coding has been deemed an important skill and is said to yield a significant advantage when applying for jobs and college, Melnick said.
Melnick, who is also a high school English teacher, said she has always noticed that a lot of students in Washington County in general, don’t have the computer skills they need to either get high paying jobs in the computer fields or to be confident in doing online school or online college.
“I thought it would be a really good program and a really good service, specifically for middle school-aged girls to get the foundations of basic coding so that when they get to high schools, they can grow up on these skills and not only have a marketable job skill to put themselves through college, but maybe teach even their families how to use computers,” she said, pointing out the already highly virtualized way of doing things.
Participants can expect to learn how to create websites in addition to other projects, Melnick added.
Those who are interested in the virtual after school coding camp can apply at gvillescholars.org, by emailing alexandrasmelnick@gmail.com, or by contacting Melnick at 561-222-5930.
