#digitalliteracy
By Ananya Gurumurthy
This summer, I had the honor of being selected as a US Youth Ambassador for the international TechGirls Exchange Program. The TechGirls program is sponsored by the US Department of State and connects young women from countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA nations) with young women from the US. The program is a ten day immersion program in computer science with coding sessions taught by professors from the Virginia Tech Computer Science Department. On the third day of class, I met a remarkable teaching assistant, Ms. Kay, a PhD student in computer science. Ms. Kay shared her inspiring journey from western Kenya to the United States.
Ms. Kay hails from a small village in Kenya, where young women are not allowed to pursue higher education. The moment Ms. Kay asked her parents about her aspirations to pursue a college degree in computer science after high school, she was told that the place for a young woman was not in college, but in a home with a husband and children. Thankfully, Ms. Kay did not allow her journey to be deterred by archaic values that had limited so many women before her; she began looking for universities abroad. She tirelessly searched for scholarship opportunities and other ways in which she could make college a reality for herself. After years of hard work and persistence, Ms. Kay arrived at Virginia Tech, now a PhD student and researcher. She has gained much recognition for her research and inspiring personal story.
I was also in an environment in which many young women hailed from countries in MENA nations, eager to overcome obstacles often built by their societies. These girls worked far past the designated “class time” and came up with creative games and projects. More importantly, all of them went back to their respective countries motivated to teach other young women in their nations how to code and become digitally literate. Some even earned scholarships to their countries’ top universities to study computer science and software engineering as a result of their tireless efforts.
The stories of the MENA TechGirls and Ms. Kay are stories of perseverance and overcoming challenging odds. Furthermore, these stories are proof of the empowering effect of women immersing themselves in technology.
Technology represents a disruptive force in our economy and more women must begin participating in its tremendous growth trajectory. In pursuing digital literacy skills, women across the world can help empower themselves, their children, and others. The current salary for the average programmer is nearly $80,000 making it a great avenue for financial empowerment, independence, and self-sufficiency. Increasingly, more companies are looking to diversify their workforce by including more women. Tech companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, Dropbox, WhatsApp, etc want to enhance gender equity in the workplace and are enabling many new learning tools and platforms. For this reason, learning to code and develop has become increasingly available and affordable. With free online sources such as Coursera, edX, Udemy, and MIT Open Courseware, learning the skills necessary to program is easier. Digital literacy can be a great vehicle to support women and their families move towards greater stability and better opportunities.
Ananya Gurumurthy, 15, is an aspiring activist from Scarsdale, NY. She has recently gotten involved with Sakhi, and hopes to continue contributing in the future! Recently, she began the local Digital Literacy Initiative in her local district with her State Senator to help ensure the inclusion and participation of underserved girls in computer science and engineering fields. Her interest in the inclusion of women in computer science was further extended when she was selected as a US Youth Ambassador for the US TechGirls Exchange Program and spent nearly two weeks with young women from the Middle East and North Africa learning about empowering women in the aforementioned communities. She hopes to continue her journey in working with digital literacy to propel equity and empowerment for women around the country!
