UMBC Summer Coding Camp, Started By A Mom, Is Just For Girls

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- If you look at recent college graduates who earned a computer science degree, only 18 percent are women.

However, as Mike Schuh reports, a local computer camp just for girls is getting bigger every year.

"As a parent, I noticed that a lot of the after school classes were tailored toward boys," says camp founder Katie Egan.

And it's proving to be wildly successful.

"We had 20 girls the first year... we currently we have 130 girls participating in the Mind, Body, & Coding summer camp," Egan says.

Each morning, a woman computer scientist, coder, programmer, or business owner talks to the girls.

And besides learning to code, the girls do yoga and robotics, too.

The combination of hands on and in-person role modeling seems to be making an impression on the elementary and middle schoolers.

"After I build something it feels really nice to like see it work," says 13-year-old Riley Malwitz.

"At school I never really was taught coding and stuff," Paige Malwitz says. "So I never really knew how to do it, but now I do, and I realize like 'Wow, I'm really good at this.'"

"I might want a career in computer science," 12-year-old Nikita Lobo tells WJZ.

Tori Schlossnagle, who's just 10 years old, says she likes that the camp is just for girls.

"Usually boys, they get more of the jobs in coding and girls don't and this one encourages the girls to go get jobs in coding," she says.

"It's like building a generation of women who code, it's cool," Paige adds.

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