Adobe Systems : A Summer of Coding, A Future of Success

Meet the girls who are making the most of seven weeks of Girls Who Code classes.

Diana Navarro is a rising junior at Rutgers University majoring in computer science and interning on Adobe's Photoshop Engineering team-but just four years ago, Diana was struggling through a computer science class in high school-that is, until she found Girls Who Code (GWC).

Diana was one of 20 girls in the inaugural 2012 GWC summer immersion program, where she found a network of sisterhood that sparked her love for computer science. 'They gave me this community and environment where I felt really comfortable asking questions and being able to be vulnerable and say, 'I don't understand this, could you teach me this?'' Diana said, 'Now I actually love coding.'

Adobe has partnered with GWC to host summer immersion programs since 2014, welcoming 20 girls our first summer and growing to 100 girls this year. We're also excited to have 10 GWC alumni, including Diana, working as Adobe interns this summer through our involvement in the Alumni Network and 'Hire Me' pledge, which ensures our support in creating clear pathways to the industry for program graduates.

Meet (and be inspired by!) a few of these young ladies who have moved on from a simple summer program and are now paving the way for girls in tech

[Attachment] Lucie Pierre-Louis - Adobe Intern | Girls Who Code Alumna

After completing the GWC program prior to her junior year of high school, Lucie discovered she had a passion for computer science. She is now a rising junior computer science major at Binghamton University and a Software Developer Intern at Adobe working with Adobe's Platform Developer Services team.

'I spent seven to eight hours a day with 20 other girls that summer, and everyone around me was so passionate about coding. I was able to meet women in computer science, women in tech, and entrepreneurial women. That's what really my sparked my interest.'

[Attachment]

Molica Sin - Adobe Intern | Girls Who Code Alumna

Molica is a rising junior at Pennsylvania State University where she is majoring in computer science. In high school, Molica wasn't a huge fan of her male-dominated computer science class, but GWC opened her mind to new possibilities.

'I think what a lot of people don't realize is how much you can do with coding,' Molica said. 'You can apply it to almost any industry, so if you have interests in art or fashion or even biology, you can really combine coding with anything.' Molica is now a Software Engineering Intern for Adobe's Digital Marketing team and a Girls Who Code mentor.

[Attachment]

Jessica Gomes - Adobe Girls Who Code, Class of 2015

After wrapping up her senior year at Dougherty High School in San Ramon, CA, Jessica will be making a cross-country trek in the fall to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she will be majoring in computer science. Jessica started GWC with no coding background, like many of the other girls in the program, but by the end of the summer, she and her team created an app that gives users recipe inspiration and provides recipes based on the ingredients users already have in their fridge!

'There aren't enough girls in tech right now. Women are just as capable as men. The littlest things in technology can change the world. Technology has magic, and anyone is capable of using it.'

[Attachment]

Nithya Deepak - Adobe Girls Who Code, Class of 2015

Nithya is from Cupertino, CA, and graduated from Presentation High School. In the fall, Nithya will attend Scripps College to major in- you guessed it-computer science! Nithya once thought that math and coding went hand-in-hand, so she wasn't confident that she would be able to handle coding. GWC showed her that coding has many different intersections-it's not just about math. Her favorite part of the program was being able to design and code an emergency resources app after just five weeks of classes.

'I definitely want to become a product manager or software engineer. I want to be part of the high tech world in Silicon Valley. Women make up a little more than half of the world's population, but less than 18% of the tech world. Their viewpoints need to be heard.'

These GWC alumni are proving that with the right resources and encouragement, girls really can change the tech industry (and maybe even the world)! We're looking forward to seeing what this year's GWC class is able to create by the end of the summer.

You may also like: