Junior Misheel Damdinbazar started a club as a part of the national organization “Girls Who Code” to share her passion with fellow women. Damdinbazar got the idea to start the club at EG after joining a summer program with the larger nonprofit.

“[The summer program] quite literally changed my life,” Damdinbazar said. “The summer experience was completely amazing, and I really wanted to share it with other girls who are interested in computer science.”

She said she enjoys coding because “I love the feeling when you finally figure it out and your code actually

functions. It’s very rewarding, and that is how I want to feel most of the time.” She added, “I also love the fact that almost everything is created by code, and one day I can create something wonderful.”

The larger organization is “dedicated to closing the gender gap in technology.” Although initially a woman’s job in World War II, coding has become an increasingly male- dominated occupation. The Girls Who Code website states, “By 2020, there will be 1.4 million jobs available in computing-related fields. U.S. graduates are on track to fill 29% of those jobs. Women are on track to fill just 3%.”

With their first meeting on the morning of Wednesday, December 7, it was a smaller, intimate set of girls with an interest in computer science. Computer science teacher Kristen Fisher sponsors the club, and she had the girls sign up on two computer programming websites, Scratch and Piazza. She also shared a curriculum to advance the girls in their pursuit of knowledge.

The club is looking to expand and recruit more members. “I don’t think it particularly takes anything to be a coder, except for resilience and patience. Anyone who can commit to learning code will most definitely have

fun along the way,” Damdinbazar said.