By Lisa A. Dubois
Back in 2010, Kimberly Bryant, an executive working for a large biotech company in the corporate ecosphere of Silicon Valley, was attending a conference on women and leadership. Suddenly, she鈥檇 had enough.
As she listened to panelist after panelist repeat the same old kvetch about how the technology industry is dominated by men because there aren鈥檛 enough women out there to fill positions, something clicked. 鈥淭his is not acceptable,鈥� Bryant, BE鈥�89, thought to herself. 鈥淭wenty-plus years after I received my engineering degree, we鈥檙e still complaining that we can鈥檛 find women to fill these roles. It鈥檚 ridiculous.鈥�
She didn鈥檛 know at that moment what she was going to do about it鈥攂ut she did know she could no longer stand by while the problem festered.
A year later she took a leap of faith and founded the nonprofit organization . The mission of Black Girls Code is to reach out to minority girls age 7 to 17 from all socioeconomic levels, and teach them about computer technology鈥攆rom creating websites and writing computer applications to crafting computer games and working in robotics. The organization鈥檚 goal is to inspire these girls to become not only the users of complex technology, but also the innovators of tomorrow.
Bryant had been in the corporate world long enough to understand that if her idea was to be successful, she would have to shake up the status quo鈥攚hich she certainly did from the beginning. People were taken aback鈥攕ome were even offended鈥攖hat she was defining such a narrow target audience by calling her organization Black Girls Code.
Yet the name resonated, particularly with other women in the industry who longed just as passionately as she did for more diversity in the high-tech world. Validation from her peers gave Bryant the strength to say, 鈥淥K, this is going to be a very bold statement, but that鈥檚 what makes it great. It鈥檚 more than just about the coding. It鈥檚 an affirmation for these girls from underrepresented communities. This is what they do. This is who they are.鈥�
The traditional and outdated stereotype of the computer geek is a socially awkward guy with thick glasses and a bad haircut鈥攕omeone who sits alone all day in a cubicle tapping out arcane code on his keyboard鈥攚hich is just one reason so few young females from ethnically diverse backgrounds enter the field. They find no appeal in that kind of isolated, self-contained work life.
On the other hand, if Black Girls Code hits its mark, the computer 鈥済eek鈥� of tomorrow may look a lot like Bryant herself: an articulate, confident woman from a racial minority who is determined to make a positive impact on the world.
Born and raised by a divorced single mom in Memphis, Tennessee, Bryant grew up as a self-described 鈥済irly-girl鈥� whose favorite activity was playing with dolls. She thought she wanted to be a lawyer, but because she was so talented in science and math, her high-school guidance counselor persuaded her to pursue a college degree in engineering instead.
She entered 菠萝视频 University in 1985, intending to become a civil engineer and work on interstate highways or airplane tarmacs. But the real action, she soon discovered, was happening in electronics. This was early in the era of the microchip, the personal computer and the portable cellphone. Lured by the innovative burst in that field, she switched her major to electrical engineering, literally going for the power. After concentrating her studies on high-voltage electronics, she landed jobs at Westinghouse Electric and DuPont.
EXHILARATING AND LONELY
This period in her life was exhilarating but also quite lonely. Often she was the only female, and invariably the only black female, in her classes or at industry conferences. Although she was not an outcast, she certainly felt like an outsider.
鈥淭he 菠萝视频 experience made me more sensitive to the need for creating a more inclusive industry,鈥� Bryant says. 鈥淚t was difficult. Getting through 菠萝视频 Engineering School was one of the hardest things I ever did in my life at the time鈥攂ut it was also a great achievement. It gave me the grit and the resiliency to be able to stick to the path I鈥檓 on right now, regardless of what the roadblocks are. I鈥檓 sticking with it to make a difference.鈥�
Data coming from the Center for Women鈥檚 Business 菠萝视频 offers little encouragement: Women make up only a quarter of the computing workforce and only 18 percent of the engineering workforce鈥攁nd the percentage of women entering those fields has been decreasing since the 1980s.
By 2020 there will be 1.4 million computer-related jobs in the United States, according to estimates by the U.S. Department of Labor. And although African American, Latina and Native American women are some of the most prolific users and adopters of social media, gaming and other technologies, African American women hold only 3 percent of all high-tech jobs. In other words, society counts on this demographic to be heavy consumers of high-tech products, but leaves them out of the creative process.
Through the years Bryant moved through positions of leadership in several industries, from electrical companies to biotechnology to pharmaceuticals, where she landed jobs at Pfizer, Merck, and at Genentech and Novartis in Silicon Valley.
She loved being part of the health care world, but eventually she felt an unshakable desire to leave Corporate America, start her own company, and help others in need. Ironically, it was her daughter, Kai, who inspired her to guide minority women into the high-tech field.
Throughout childhood Kai had been a heavy gamer, spending her elementary-school years absorbed in Xbox, Game Boy and World of Warcraft. When Kai was 12 her mother sent her to a computer-science summer camp at Stanford University, where Kai discovered she could use technology not only as a pastime but as a creative tool.
For Bryant, however, her daughter鈥檚 awakening stirred up those old feelings of isolation. If Kai continued to pursue this passion, would she too be the only black woman in the room?
No. That had to change.
Bryant knew that the middle-school years are when both boys and girls鈥攂ut mainly girls鈥攂egin to lose interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. In April 2011, Bryant launched her first Black Girls Code computer-programming workshop in San Francisco. During the one-week summer session, 14 girls from ages 6 to 13 learned not only the basics of programming but also about application and Web design. They took field trips to visit tech companies like Facebook and Google. They worked in groups, brainstorming on technology solutions and artistic choices.
The workshop caught fire in ways Bryant had never imagined. 鈥淎t first we thought we鈥檇 mainly focus on 10- to 13-year-old girls,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut we quickly found out we could get a good start much earlier in the pipeline. That was just by accident.鈥�
AN EARLY START
Younger siblings of the target attendees began asking if they could go through the workshop, and Bryant let them. 鈥淭hose 6- and 7-year-olds often were just as capable of learning the curriculum as the older students and even more enthusiastic about it.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been three years now since we started Black Girls Code,鈥� she says, 鈥渟o my 7-year-olds are now 10 and my 8-year-olds are now 11. As the organization has grown, we鈥檝e found that if we start very early, like with girls at age 7, and keep them in the pipeline and attending workshops, their interest has not waned. Even though they鈥檙e in those weird middle-school years, they are just as interested, if not more so, than they were before.鈥�
In just three years Black Girls Code has reached more than 3,000 girls from all walks of life. The goal is for 1 million girls to learn coding through Black Girls Code classes by the year 2040.
The organization now includes seven U.S. chapters, with plans to launch eight additional domestic chapters in the near future鈥攔equiring Bryant to choose from among nearly 60 cities that have requested chapters鈥攑lus a chapter in London and another in Africa. 鈥淜enya, Ghana and Liberia are at the top of our list,鈥� Bryant says. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had requests from all over the continent.鈥�
A one-day class in the U.S. has a fee of $35, and a five-day summer-camp session costs $250. Black Girls Code works closely with businesses to sponsor scholarships. So far, about 90 percent of girls at the summer camps have been able to attend for free.
鈥淥ne of the things we really stress is that, although our core demographic is underrepresented girls in our African American, Latino and Native American communities, the classes are very diverse and are open to any girls,鈥� Bryant says. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have any boys in the classes, but we do open them to any girls.鈥�
Bryant is able to control costs through a hefty use of volunteers. To date, more than 2,000 volunteers鈥攚omen and men from all racial and ethnic backgrounds鈥攈ave given their time to Black Girls Code. These volunteers include computer scientists, software engineers, college students, graduate students, moms, dads and teachers. Some are so enthusiastic about Black Girls Code that they travel long distances to work for free.
They do so to reach children like Aita, an early member of Black Girls Code. One of 10 children in her family, Aita had no interest in computer science when her parents signed her up for a class when she was 11. Yet she was a natural. During the next two years, she blossomed and became a leader among her coding peers. In the spring of last year, she was at her middle school when a teacher walked by and realized Aita was showing her friends how to build a Web page. The teacher was so impressed that she enlisted Aita to teach technology classes to other students at the middle school. Now 13, Aita continues to teach herself new programming languages so she can be a better instructor for her peers.
Earlier this year Kimberly Bryant was named to The CNN 10: Visionary Women, a list of 10 women who are helping other women to find success and empowerment. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to just teach the girls to code,鈥� she told the news network during an interview. 鈥淲e also want to teach them to create businesses, to become business owners, and become the next Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates.鈥�
In 2013, Bryant was honored as a Champion of Change by the White House for her work in tech inclusion and for her focus on bridging the digital divide for girls. Last year she also was selected by Business Insider as one of the 25 Most Influential African Americans in Technology and was named to The Root 100 list and the Ebony Power 100 list. In 2012 she received the prestigious Jefferson Award for Public Service for her work to support communities in the San Francisco area. She serves on the Champions Board of the National Girls Collaborative Project and on the board of the National Center for Women & Information Technology鈥檚 K鈥�12 Alliance.
鈥淭he impact of our work speaks to how girls are natural change agents and natural teachers of others,鈥� Bryant says. 鈥淚 even see this with my own daughter. If you teach one girl, she will naturally turn around and teach five, six or 10 more.鈥� Exponential teaching, Bryant explains, is how Black Girls Code will reach its goal of 1 million participants.
Another enlightening discovery for these girls is how they can use technology to better their communities. While boys may envision a game in which cool superheroes shoot laser guns and kill bad guys, girls tend to focus on social-impact subjects. Bryant鈥檚 students have built programs to prevent bullying, increase recycling, and make food banks more efficient.
Including this population in the high-tech world is bound to be good for everybody, Bryant argues. Their participation in the design, creation and implementation of games, computer apps and robotics will make those products stronger.
鈥淎s women we are natural collaborators. All the social and aesthetic qualities and sensibilities we bring to the table are needed,鈥� she says. 鈥淗uman-centered design is really going to create a better product in the future鈥攊n all kinds of ways and in all industries. That鈥檚 the skill and strength women have as contributors in the technology space.鈥�
Years ago when Bryant was a new engineering school graduate, she transitioned into the power industry. A quarter-century later she has come full circle.
Who codes? More than ever before, Black Girls Code. Now we鈥檙e talking power.
Lisa A. DuBois, a longtime 菠萝视频 Magazine contributor, is a former Nashville journalist now living in Paradise Valley, Arizona.
during 菠萝视频 School of Engineering鈥檚 weeklong celebration of 2014 National Engineers Week.