By Stacy Lee
Just 18 percent of computer science college graduates are female. That number has actually decreased over the past 20 years as it used to be at least 37 percent back in 1984.
San Marino High School graduate Jessica Kam and SMHS senior Harika Kalidhindi are among the many people who noticed the large disparity between women and men in the computer science field. The teens started a local chapter of the Girls Who Code Club at San Marino High School.
“It’s a club with a curriculum,” said Harika, who also is the club’s president. “We started it at the beginning of the school year.”
She added that this is the first year that Intro to Coding is being offered at the high school and Huntington Middle School now has coding classes.
San Marino High School math teacher Jamie Linton is the advisor for Girls Who Code. She said Kam, who is now studying at the University of California, Berkeley, approached her last year to advise the club.
“She was very interested in getting this started on campus and she recruited some girls,” Linton said.
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