One of the really cool things to come out of the Apple Coding Initiative is the opportunity I was given to sponsor a student-led Girls Who Code club. The club was actually the idea of one of students last year, Alexa B., who decided her junior year that she wanted to lead a GWC club at our campus.
The girls met in my room every week for lunch. We spent most of the beginning meetings just getting closer. We laughed, told stories, and got to know each other better through team building activities. We even had a few boys join and support us. We were excited when we saw that GWC added a new Swift App Development Club club plan. It fit right into our initiative with Apple!
The girls decided they wanted to finish the app I started at the coding academy, and they were planning how to make that happen before we went to spring break. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, we were unable to complete the project, or finish up our club. Regardless, some of my favorite memories of this year, and of this experience with Apple, has been the time that I spent with my GWC club.
For Valentine's day, we had a GWC Gal-entine's Party. We all exchanged Gal-entine's bags fully of candy, little trinkets, and handwritten notes and cards.
They taught me how to appreciate the smallest things. We laughed and had inside jokes that only we knew. They showed me coding tricks and helped me laugh through my frustration with Swift Playgrounds when Byte wouldn't listen to me. (They explained it was user error). We didn't just focus on coding, we focused on enjoying the moment, and we build relationships that will last a lifetime.
We were our own little family and crew, and I will miss them terribly.
