Dalton Hosts ‘Code Like A Girl’

5/4/2016

On the sunny Saturday morning of April 16, the Dalton lobby was abuzz with the chatter of teenage girls. 150 high school students were gathered for Dalton’s first ever Code Like A Girl Conference, eager to hear from female trailblazers in the field of computer science.

Read the full-length story here and in the Daltonian by writers Molly Shapiro and Nora Salitan.

The Conference featured 60 speakers, ranging from college students to college professors, those who founded companies to those who work at companies, all united by a love for computer science. Code Like a Girl was structured around various panels and keynotes, each highlighting a different facet of computer science.

Engineering department head Gordon Campbell recalls that the inspiration for the undertaking came last year, while he was watching a film with his students about women in technology. Campbell had attended Grace Hopper, a conference devoted to gathering women in computer science, but he had never contemplated the possibility of a high school version of the event. Campbell recalls, “We were in Tribeca last spring, and a year later, we’re inviting 400 kids into the Dalton School.”

Emily Cohen, one of the Conference’s student organizers, had another personal experience that sparked her interest in a computer science conference solely for high school girls. She recalls, “At an engineering program I did two summers ago, one of the projects was a competition between two teams and the teacher asked us to pick one boy and one girl as ‘captains.’ Halfway through team selection, all of the boys and none of the girls had been picked. This experience made me acutely aware of the gender disparity that exists in the field.”

When Campbell first came to Dalton from Columbia University, one of Head of School Ellen Stein’s priorities was to fix the problem of a lack of females in computer science. In 2007, there was just one girl enrolled in the Dalton computer science program, Allison Mishkin (‘07), one of the principle organizers of the Conference. Today, 45% of Dalton’s high school computer science students are female. This Conference represents another step towards achieving Stein’s goal.

In Stein’s introductory remarks at Code Like A Girl, she said, “Dalton’s motto is ‘go forth unafraid’ and we believe that girls can, will, and should do that in technology. We hope today will inspire you to break the gender barrier.” Campbell credits the Dalton administration with much of the Conference’s success. He says, “The leadership of the school was behind this from the get-go. It’s not easy to do things anywhere without a lot of people getting behind you. So it was essential that the school leadership said, ‘go ahead, we completely support your goal.’”

Four keynote speakers scaffolded the event, giving presentations filled with advice and anecdotes. Rachel Reinitz, the first speaker, told of the path that took her from a degree in civil engineering to running IBM’s Bluemix Garage program, her current job. She focused on the nonlinear nature of her career, highlighting the value of mentors and unexpected choices, such as her decision to leave IBM, and later, to return, as the markers of her success.

The following keynote address was given by Minerva Tantoco, the Chief Technology Officer of New York City. She described growing up in Queens, and attending the Bronx High School of Science, while dreaming of being a doctor. Everything changed for Tantoco during a psychology class her freshman year at Vassar College. She was asked to use a computer to process statistics, and touching the keyboard “felt like magic.”

Tantoco went on to create her own artificial intelligence company, completely restructure the online banking system, and eventually receive a job offer from Mayor de Blasio to be the first Chief Technology Officer of New York City. She emphasized innovation as the touchstone of her successful professional life: “A big secret is to invent your own path,” she told the audience, “I’ve invented every job I’ve had.”

Laura Butler put a similar emphasis on passion and imagination in her keynote. Butler works at Microsoft, heading a division which works on updating Windows. She declared, “I create things that change the world,” and explained that cookie baking and the pursuit of happiness are what have made her so successful. Butler said that “passion is rocket fuel,” and encouraged people to find random, even “weird” areas of interest to build confidence. She also spoke about the potential impact of a job in computer science. She told the audience, “The best technology gets around space and time. It gives you freedom. It gets around the physical world.”

The Conference’s grand finale was a Skype session with actress and comedian Mindy Kaling. Kaling was interviewed by former Dalton teacher Jocelyn Leavitt, her longtime friend and former college roommate. Leavitt, the co-founder of Hopscotch, a website that enables users (typically children) to use simple code to build their own games, asked Kaling about her budding interest in computer science, the experience of being a female in a stereotypically male profession, and her advice to the audience. Kaling said that a woman “should be strong, decisive, confident, but must also be sweet.” She said, “I wish I could have told myself to worry less about other people.” She also spoke of the importance of female friendships, noting her closeness with and admiration for Leavitt. Kaling also asked Leavitt questions about her experience with coding and her career change from teaching kids to building a website to help them learn to code.

In addition to the keynotes, there were many panels, as well as a time for groups of students to break off into rooms with panelists and keynote speakers for “mentorship sessions”, and an opportunity for students to collect T-shirts and chat with tech companies.

In the presentations, the women spoke of their experiences in computer science, focusing on the reality of being a female in the field. While the majority of speakers said they have found ways to use their gender as a benefit, others did not deny that it had sometimes made their careers more difficult.

Butler gave tips such as, “Ask for forgiveness, not permission,” “Authority comes from acting like you have it,” and “Life is not graded like a report card.” She said, “Being a woman is an asset. It won’t always feel like it.”

Reinitz echoed this sentiment: “I’m sometimes the only woman in the room. Which means when I say something, they remember my name. Just that fact is helpful.” She gave female-specific advice, speaking from her experience of being a woman and working with women: “Speak with confidence. Even when you don’t feel it. You don’t want to be arrogant. You never want to say you know something when you don’t, but when you’re asked to do something, speak with confidence.” Reinitz noted that women often end their sentences with a question, thus lacking an air of authority or intelligence when they speak. She advised against this.

The moderator of the “Computer Science for Good” Panel, Melanie Lavelle, who co-founded BenefitKitchen, an app which helps families find out which government benefits they are able to access, also drew on a common female weakness: “We tend to talk to the problems, whereas men try to talk through the main idea.” She advised that the young members of the audience shift away from this tendency.

Each speaker shared a common message: women have strengths which men don’t have. They told audience members to use those strengths. Christina Hawatmeh, the founder of Scopio, a company that licenses user-generated images for the media, said in an interview after participating in the Entrepreneurs panel: “I think women think more about things and they’re more detail-oriented, so be detail-oriented.” Reinitz mentioned that she has noticed women “tend to be more collaborative and communicative.”

The Conference's all-female environment fostered honesty and intimacy, enabling the panelists to speak candidly about their experiences as women in a male-dominated field. Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, the co-founder of Gilt Groupe and Glam Squad, said, “You have to be hyper-organized and very clear about what your priorities are. You can’t do everything A++ all the time. Right now I feel like I’m not the best friend to people.” On that same panel, Liz Wessel, who founded WayUp, an app that helps college students find internships, admitted, “I don’t have a work/life balance. I’ve lost a lot of friends.” Also addressing the question of work/life balance that often permeates conversations about female careers, Reinitz stated, “You learn things from being a mother that will help your career. And I did. I learned patience. I was not a patient person. I am now a patient person. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Many of the women also opened up about the social insecurities and challenges they’ve faced, both personally and professionally. Even Kaling, who has become wildly successful, said, “I face so much rejection. The only way to deal with it is to work harder and think of the long game.” In a similar vein, Tiffany Pham, the Founder and CEO of Mogul, a website that connects women around the world to trending stories, offered the advice, “Be resilient. Fail fast. Fail forward.”

Guests and speakers alike spoke to the power and necessity of an all-girls conference, which not only created a comfortable environment but also showed participants that, as females interested in computer science, they are not alone. A student from Fieldston, who attended Code Like A Girl with two classmates, said, “We have very few girls at Fieldston who code, so it’s cool to see a whole room full of girls who want to learn how to code or know how to code. I think coming together as a city is important.”

Saron Yitbarek, the founder of CodeNewbie, a tech startup which supports programmers and those interested in learning about computer science, echoed the importance of an all-female event: “Before my current job, I was almost always the only woman at the table. I think it’s really great for other women to see a panel of women all telling their stories and being very honest and sharing their experiences.”

Tracey Vitchers, chief development officer for Sexual Health Innovations, which creates technology that improves sexual health, spoke to the need for visibility in an interview after her panel: “To see someone on a panel you can relate to makes such a huge difference. I was recently at an event about technology, and every panelist was a guy. There were a ton of women in the room who worked in technology and there was no one up there who looked like them. And that is really disheartening if you are passionate about this field and you want to see someone who looks like you, who could be your mentor, who has been through the same things that you have gone through or you will go through, just so you can know you can do it too.”l.”

In the “Computer Science for Good” Panel, Vitchers shared an anecdote about a man in her workspace who said that the only women “worth a damn” in their office were the ones who knew how to code. She said that she immediately corrected him and brought him to see the falsity and unfairness of his comment, but that she was impacted by the statement. Such stories were sobering for audience members, reminding them of the hurdles they will likely encounter in their own careers.

Though the Conference participants sought to inform the student attendees about the sometimes unfortunate realities of being a woman in computer science, they also looked to inspire the girls by talking about the wide variety of opportunities that exist. Reinitz explained, “I think that part of the importance is understanding more about the options in technology-- what are the career options, what does it mean to be a woman in technology. I know, for me, I came from a family with no experience in technology, so I didn’t really know anything about it.”

For many of the Conference’s attendees, it became clear that having computer science skills allows one to be versatile, and qualify for a wide range of jobs. Tantoco said, “Technology...is like your passport to anything you want to do.” An entire panel, titled “Different Paths in Technology,” was committed to discussing this topic.

Alice, a student from Chapin, said that she learned that, “You don’t necessarily have to code to get into computer science and there are many different career paths.” She added, “I’m very interested in exploring all the different options I have.” Pauleena, a student at Dwight Englewood gained a similar understanding. She said, “I think it’s very impressive to see how they were able to incorporate everything they found interesting into one profession.”

Another common emphasis in each panel and keynote was the power of computer science, and its widespread applications in almost any field. Tantoco said, “New York is a place where many different industries come together. No matter what you’re interested in, there’s going to be a tech component to it.” She added, “You now have a superpower. Use those superpowers for good.” Hawatmeh also spoke of the ways computer science can be used to achieve social change: “Technology is only as good as the real world problem that you’re solving,” she told the audience. Butler added in her keynote presentation, “Coding is not magic, but the result is magical.”

The “Computer Science for Good” Panel focused entirely on the potential positive impact of computer science. Vitchers said, “I am so convinced that my app is going to change lives. It’s going to change the way we think about things.” Every speaker was able to tell of the direct effect that their work has had on the lives of a population in need. Sam Fons, a recovering addict and app developer who created Addicaid, which helps people with addiction recovery, said, “I’m doing it because it was a problem I had-- finding the right supportive community.” The idea of finding a problem and using computer science skills to solve it was a refrain throughout the day.

In the late afternoon, as the Conference attendees were grabbing “Code Like A Girl” T-shirts at the swag fair and chatting with the panelists and keynote speakers, the organizers and some volunteers paused for a moment to reflect on the day. After hearing accounts from the event’s participants, they were proud that the event was substantive and energizing for all involved.

A few days later, Campbell seemed very pleased with the outcome of the Conference. He noted a positive change in the tenor of the panelists’ views on women in engineering: “The conferences I went to with women years ago were focused on the inequity. The language I heard from the panelists was more, ‘we’re moving on, and we’re not dealing with the blame thing, we’re gonna fix it, and own it.’ They were sort of saying, you can do this, and we’re telling you you can do this because we’ve done it. And I think that was part of the conference’s goal--to bring in people who have dispelled the myth and showed that it’s not insurmountable because I’m sitting on the stage. If you can bring in 60 people and say, look, I’m solving problems or created an organization, that’s pretty powerful.”

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