Reading into the code: Grace Pfohl
My name is Grace Pfohl, and I am a Junior at River Ridge High School in Woodstock, Georgia. I am new to coding and have had the incredible opportunity to attend the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program at AT&T Atlanta this summer. I have had the chance to finally learn how to code, something that I have always wanted to do but needed an opening to start.
I joined Girls Who Code so that I could learn if Computer Science is what I want to pursue as a career. I have had a lot of interactions with technology, but nothing heavily focused on coding. I joined a game making club in elementary school and used GameMaker Studio to make a basic video game. I was one of the only two girls in that class, but I didn’t really think much of that at the time. I then started down the path of doing architecture and 3D design when I found myself in a club that encouraged me to enter my county’s technology fair. I ended up using Google Sketchup to bring to life what I imagined a book nerd’s paradise to be. That project ended up placing first in the competition much to my surprise. While I put technology on the back burner after middle school to focus on academics and other pursuits, Girls Who Code appeared for me at the perfect time.
When I was accepted into GWC SIP, I read a book by two inspirational girls who code: Girl Code: Gaming, Going Viral, and Getting it Done by Sophie Houser and Andrea Gonzales… this book solidified my desire to attend GWC SIP. With all of the success they achieved with their game, I knew I was going to have a phenomenal summer. I have always wanted to learn to code, but I just have always had so many other activities to focus on.
My favorite thing to do in my spare time is read. I review books on Teenreads.com, and I am part of their teen board. Every month I receive books in the mail, and I review them on the website and sometimes write blog posts. I am so excited that I was able to review GWC’s “The Friendship Code”! I am eager to have my two favorite activities cross over, and reviewing a GWC book is exactly that. I also attend the Decatur Book Festival in Atlanta annually, and Reshma Saujani is going to be a presenting author. I am not going to miss getting in her signing line!
In the future, I would like to work on projects that blend my two passions: reading and computer science. GWC has sparked my interest in developing my own book blog, and I am considering taking that on as a personal project.
I love being a part of Girls Who Code because it has allowed me to meet so many amazing girls that I would never have been able to meet otherwise, and it has shown me so many careers that I did not even know existed before the program. I had the opportunity to tour GM’s Innovation Center, AT&T’s Drive Studio, and Clarkston Consulting’s offices. I no longer take technology for granted and have realized that CS has made the conveniences in my life possible. I have become very interested in the technology of those conveniences, and I seem to no longer be able to visit a website without pulling up Chrome’s Developer Tools.
I commuted an hour each way to GWC, and it was completely worth the commitment. That’s what coding is — a commitment to trial & error and pushing yourself to solve problems. I’ve decided to take AP Computer Science next year because I am committed to continuing to code, and I plan to study CS in college to hopefully help make the world better!
For any girl out there who’s not sure if she should learn to code, the best thing you can do is to just start doing it. here are so many resources on the internet to do so. I recommend finding a website that allows you to learn on your own time and start making your dreams a reality. Coding is surprisingly creative word, and you will discover that it offers infinite possibilities to change the world.
Check out Grace’s work on Teenreads.com and the reviews for our first two books!
Originally published at imagirlwhocodes.com on August 23, 2017.
