Mother Coders :: Celebration of Pilot Class

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I last mentioned MotherCoders earlier this month (you can see the post here).

As promised in the last post, I was one of six mothers, who was chosen to be part of the pilot program, of MotherCoders. The program was held at Next Space on Potrero Hill in the city. MotherCoders is a tech orientated program geared towards advancing mothers in having technical careers in the new economy.

"Moms can help fuel innovation."

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Yesterday, Google released its workforce diversity record. Women at Google only comprised 17 percent of its global tech workforce. MotherCoders is just one of many non-profit organizations that will help women, mothers in this case, who are interested in broadening their understanding of the technology landscape and wanting to learn basic computer programming. 

Being in the pilot program for MotherCoders was a great experience and I came out with an even bigger understanding of what it means to be 'technical.' Even now, I miss being able to go sit around and chat with fellow mothers, who understand what I am going through as a mother, and being able to learn and teach each other. 

Tina Lee, is the founder of MotherCoders, who started the organization when she couldn't find resources that worked well for her when she wanted to become more proficient in computer programming. She realized that there might be other mothers, like her, who are interested in the field, but couldn't find something that will allow the need of social interaction and support from like-minded peers. MotherCoders addresses the need as the demand for technology skills will continue to grow as software continues to eat the world. Mothers, who are interested in having technical skills are hindered by childcare or financial constraints. MotherCoders addresses this issue by providing on-site childcare and Saturday classes. 

"Moms represent an enormous talent pool." 

As one mom from the class stated, "I am really excited to be surrounded by other women who actually understand how hard it is to learn to code, while being a mom at the same time." With the six weeks spent together, we became a family, a tribe. I learned so much not just from taking the courses but from each mother and am looking forward to seeing MotherCoders grow. 

With Michelle Wetzler of Keen.io and Alyssa Simpson of IBM/TeaLeaf

You can read more about MotherCoders here. Feel free to celebrate the pilot class and MotherCoders on June 7th, 2014. You can get tickets here






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