The second edition of the Women Coding for Success program launched on March 10th by way of concluding AmCham’s Women’s Week. The sessions take place all day on Saturdays, oftentimes at AmCham, and oftentimes at workplaces around Paris who have partnered with the initiative to expand upon women’s involvement and influence within STEM fields. Some of which include Willa, DLA Piper, and Station F.

Our program aims to equip ambitious, young women with the tools to thrive in STEM fields. It aims to do so by teaching us how to code, which not only provides a valuable set of technical skills but also teaches us how to enhance our critical thinking skills. For many of us it’s the first time that we’ve learned how to learn outside of a textbook, which has given us the ability to hone in on our problem-solving skills to a whole new level. The sessions took off with us diving into the subject as we were challenged to use different languages such as Javascript, C++, HTML, and Python, to print the quintessential initial text “Hello World.” From there we’ve been tackling prompt boxes, loops, and if/else statements. In addition to learning how to code, we have had workshops for personal branding, entrepreneurship, and diversity and leadership. In our latest workshop we learned about the agile method hands-on by forming groups and solving various tasks given to us.

Above all we have become a community. On a macro-scale with AmCham, the community has been nothing but inclusive and inspiring. We have been encouraged to attend their event series and actively contribute. As for our micro-group, we work together to solve complex problems, while forming a strong community of diverse, intelligent, and ambitious women ready to take on the world of tech. We work together to solve complex problems, while forming a strong community of diverse, intelligent, and globally minded women ready to take on the world of tech.

Monica, one of the participants who commutes from a city outside of Lille, says, “If someone were to walk in the room during our Saturday sessions, they would think we have all been colleagues for years. There’s a cohesion in the group that makes it easy to work together, and since everyone speaks both French and English, communication is simple and efficient. Even though our diversity of backgrounds should make it difficult for us to communicate, we have a shared goal and common interests; in this, we are strong.”

Thank you to AmCHam, and a special thank you to AmCham Women, and Skillogs, especially, Gayle Gorvett, Noel Thevenet, and Raphael Moraglia for their support and dedication to the success of our program.