The Newton Girls Who Code club is winding up a very successful first year in Newton and planning to expand next year.  Laurie Finkielsztein, a Newton resident and junior at Gann Academy, started the club, inspired by her experience at the 7-week Girls Who Code immersion program at Twitter/Cambridge last summer.  She contacted Liz Rowland, teen librarian at the Newton Free Library, who recruited Google software engineer David Miller as volunteer instructor for the Newton after-school sessions.  When 37 girls came to the third meeting last October, they divided into two sections, each meeting two hours a week to learn computer science and create projects using the Girls Who Code curriculum.

Throughout the school year, they created video games and computer-aided art; built apps for phones and mobile web browsers; and studied cryptography and artificial intelligence. Newton’s club has been featured in GigaOm, the Google Cloud Platform blog, and the Newton TAB.  This spring, they met for an afternoon with Harvard’s Women in Science club.  In May, their final projects will tackle real-world community problems, and this summer two students will attend the Girls Who Code summer immersion program.

Laurie says, “I’ve been so surprised at how excited these girls are.  They don’t feel that coding is nerdy.  We’re changing that stereotype by starting young.  They see that coding is one of the coolest things you’ll get to do.  It’s the closest thing to having super-powers.  It’s a skill that can be applied to anything.  It teaches you a new way to think.”

Newton GWC aims to expand its offerings next school year, with more sections and new technologies (3D printing, Raspberry Pi).  A family information session will be held at the Newton Free Library, Wednesday, September 16 at 7PM.  Club meetings will start in early October.  For more information, prospective students should contact Liz Rowland at lrowland@minlib.net.  Prospective volunteer instructors should contact David Miller at newtongwc@gmail.com.