ST PAUL, Minn — A software engineer from St. Paul noticed something missing from her field of work: women of color.
Victoria Kyereme decided to create a nonprofit all about coding with a mission to empower young BIPOC and low-income girls.
"I really wanted to create this safe space and environment for girls that look like me at a young age to see themselves in this tech space," said Kyereme, the founder and executive director of the nonprofit "Girls Dream Code".
"Our mission is to really empower young girls of color and low-income girls to pursue an interest in tech by providing free tech workshops, computer science-based programs," said Kyereme. "Just because there is a lot of under-representation of women, women of color, people from low-income backgrounds that exist in tech today, so that's where that mission comes from."
Kyereme started "Girls Dream Code" in 2020 and instead of hosting a classroom full of students learning about coding, the nonprofit had to pivot to an online program during the height of the pandemic.
"It was a really big learning curve for me," said Kyereme. "It was my first time running a nonprofit or business on my own and so it's been a great journey. We definitely have grown and are still growing, learning along the way."
Today, "Girls Dream Code" works with multiple high schools, charter schools and organizations in the east metro.
"A lot of them have never coded before or knew anything about programming and we do different types of tech workshops so it's not just coding, we've done workshops on cyber security, machine learning, different things like that," said Kyereme.
The most rewarding part for Kyereme is seeing the lightbulb of a great idea come on over a student's head.
"I liked helping girls, especially girls that looked like me just learn something new and tackle on new challenges," said Kyereme. "It's not impossible, you just need the right resources and the right mentors."
Kyereme said there are coding events happening throughout the year and she's always looking for more funding to help pay instructors and buy computers for students who don't have one.
If you would like to help in any way or are interested in joining the program you can learn more at www.girlsdreamcode.org
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