UWCSEA
STORIES
SheHacks 1.0
We’re just High School kids, what can we do about it? Looking around their Computer Science classes, a group of five High School girls couldn’t help but notice that the number of female students was incredibly low. But instead of sitting back and accepting the status quo, they worked together to create change. During their after-school activity, Girls in Tech, at the IDEAS Hub, they designed SheHacks—an all female hackathon for beginners, designed to inspire, empower and unite girls to pursue Computer Science. SheHacks co-founder Jaanvi says, “At first I was really skeptical, and I thought ‘We’re just High School kids, what can we do about it?’”. But with the support of the IDEAS Hub Technical Manager and boundless enthusiasm, the project was launched. Sponsors and mentors from Google, JP Morgan, ThoughtWorks and Visa quickly came aboard. After months of planning and despite several last-minute obstacles, the hackathon was held at Google’s Singapore offices 23–24 February 2019 with over 90 participants from schools across Singapore. The theme of SheHacks was ‘Empowerment’ and it was open to female students even if they had never coded before. With the help of an impressive slate of female mentors from across the tech industry, attendees learned how to put together a pitch and had the chance to present their idea to the crowd. By all accounts, the event was a roaring success and the team looks forward to SheHacks 2.0. For Jaanvi, one of the most exciting outcomes of the project was the creation of a strong female coding community at UWCSEA; empowering, motivating and supporting each other. Jaanvi says, “It’s my passion to show other girls that anything is possible. Even in our well off society, there is still a stigma about STEM, and I want to tell other girls to do what you love. Ignore the comments that limit you, such as ‘She’s such a nerd.’ I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to do this.” SheHacks was co-founded by Jaanvi Chopra, Jamie Lin, Disha Mohta, Gaurika Sawheny and Tanisha Sethi. The donor-funded IDEAS Hub at Dover Campus aims to provide a place that inspires and supports our community to explore, innovate, collaborate and create sustainable solutions to shape a better world. Find out more:
