"The Little Girl Geek Wants to Play" - a talk by Executive Director of Latino2, Jennifer Arguello (@engijen), for SheCodesConf (shecodesconf.com).

1. The Little Girl Geek
Wants to Play
Jennifer Argüello
{SheCodes} Conference
August 9, 2013

2. Your First Geek Moment

3. A Computer Scientist is Born

4. 20%
2%
4%
74%
US Public Schools
High Schools that don't offer CS
HS that offer AP CS
HS that offer CS
Middle Schools and Elementary Schools
~10 million HS
Students
State of US CS K12 Ed

5. Women in Computing

6. Deterrents from computing
 Irrelevant curriculum
 Lecture based instruction instead of project-based
 Teaching styles that discourage collaboration
 Failure proof environments
 Absence of role models and mentors
 Limited visibility or inaccurate perceptions of
computing careers

7. Are we doomed?

8. The Future is NOW

9. CS in the classroom

10. CS 101

11. Benefits
 Just showing you exist goes a long way
 Engaging and teaching youth grows your facilitation
skills and increases subject area mastery
 You become a better learner and problem solver
 They inspire you more than you think you inspire them
 YOU ARE CREATING THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE!

12. How to get involved?
 Volunteer for programs
 Ask your company for financial and in-kind support of CS
schools and programs
 Be a mentor
 Advocate for CS Certification and adoption of CS
curriculum standards

14. Let the Little Girl
(or Boy) Geek
Play

15. Thank you!
www.jenniferarguello.com
jarguello@gmail.com
@engijen

16. Exposure to Computer Science
Matters
 Students that take the AP CS Exam are 8 times more
likely to major in CS
 Summer of 2010, Googlers were surveyed
 98% of CS majors exposed to CS before college vs. 45% of
the non-CS majors
 CS majors more likely to have known CS was a possible
career path when in high school