We had such an awesome day today! Upon arrival the girls were greeted by their mentors as they took a seat and enjoyed two guest talks by Ms. Kathy Ziet from Canon and Ms. Debra Prywes. These amazing women took time out of their busy lives to come and talk to the girls about their personal experiences working in the tech industry and finding their career path. Ms Kathy Ziet shared her story of starting her career in college as a photographer but quickly realizing that she was not necessarily in her area of expertise. Upon completing her degree, she worked various jobs at companies such as American Express where she operated as project manager for many years. She then went on to get a job at Cannon where she was able to both rekindle her love for photography and, this time, be in her area of expertise.
Ms. Prywes, on the other hand, told our girls about her ‘break’ into the gaming industry where she began as an intern and fell in love with computer science. She also reiterated stories of visiting some amazing gaming conferences such as E3 and recounting the marketing strategies many companies used to get their games out there before their release. After this brief talk, the girls were welcomed to lunch followed by our workshop of the day, today’s language: Python! Many of our girls got a better taste of Python as they ran through Snakify- an online system designed to teach the basic fundamentals of the language. Our STEMinists also had a great time moving forward in their own curriculum through XX Coders resource guide.
Finally, a few quick announcements and reminders: The girls should have already brought home their permission slips for the Microsoft visit this Thursday. Please contact Aditi at aditi@xxcoders.com with any other questions!
Best,
Aditi
