Alise Ma and Diamond Cloud-Sayers, two high school students from Red Lake, Minnesota, met Chelsea Clinton at a signing of her new book, "It's Your World" on November 20, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Clinton's book includes a mention of Girls Who Code, a non-profit program meant to inspire high-school aged girls to learn computing and coding skills and, ultimately, increase the number of women working in high-tech professions. Both girls are members of the club in Red Lake.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN-A Bemidji State University staff member and two high school students from Red Lake, Minnesota, met Chelsea Clinton at a signing of her new book, "It's Your World" on November 20, in St. Paul, Minnesota. The signing was at the Red Balloon Bookshop at 891 Grant Avenue.
Clinton's book includes a mention of Girls Who Code, a non-profit program meant to inspire high-school aged girls to learn computing and coding skills and, ultimately, increase the number of women working in high-tech professions. That mention features two participants in the Northern Minnesota Girls Who Code chapter organized in the fall of 2014 by Jennifer Theisen, a programmer in Bemidji State's programming, networking and servers office.
Two of the club's members from Red Lake, Alise May, a 16-year-old high school junior, and Diamond Cloud-Sayers, a 14-year-old ninth grader, both from Red Lake, MN, have used what they learned at the club to create an app called "Ojibwe Helper." Their app, which helps teach the Ojibwe language, is featured in Clinton's mention of Girls Who Code.
BSU's Girls Who Code club will begin meeting again in January 2016 and expects its membership to total nearly 30 girls for its second year. Nearly two dozen are expected to return from the program's first year. Club members come from schools in the Bemidji area and many travel to Bemidji by bus from local communities such as Red Lake and Ponemah.
The St. Paul signing was one of 20 on Clinton's fall tour to promote "It's Your World."
BSU's Girls Who Code club is funded in part by a girlsBEST grant from the Women's Foundation of Minnesota.
Excerpt from "It's Your World"
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Another effort, led by the remarkable Reshma Saujani, is Girls Who Code, a nonprofit program that teaches female high school students how to code and mentors the young women in the program as they create their own innovative apps. Girls who've participated in Girls Who Code have created apps that help kids with autism learn through music, help users decide what items to recycle, help improve public safety by locking a phone's texting function when a driver is going over fifteen miles per hour and even one to help girls learn self-defense. Alise and Diamond, members of the Chippewa tribe in Minnesota, created "Ojibwe Helper," an app to help preserve their heritage and culture through teaching their traditional Ojibwe language to app users. Very cool. If you're interested in learning more and applying, go to girlswhocode.com."
