A unique program in Jefferson gave the opportunity for young women to experience computer coding.
The Girls Coding Camp was the first of its kind in rural Iowa. The three-day program allowed ten middle to high school aged girls to learn about computer programs with HTML, Java Script, mobile apps, and coding for games.
Lead Artisan for the Forge in Jefferson AJ Whatling, has experience with doing these types of camps at the Forge in Des Moines. He says Jefferson’s program had a variety of speakers to tell the participants what it takes to be in the tech industry. He adds that the program is almost entirely led by women. Whatling explains the intent of why they chose the ages of the participants that they did.
“This is the perfect time to get them at least thinking about it. It’s always that, ‘Well let’s go visit XYZ shop and maybe you’ll be interested.’ But that’s kind of all you can do with these kids sometimes is show it to them and some people will really pick up on it and others will be like, ‘Not for me,’ and that’s perfectly fine. I really think this is a great opportunity and to have it done here in Jefferson, Iowa is probably one of the greatest things I’ve done in my whole career.” 
Olivia Hoyt is going into eighth grade and she talks about why she participated in the camp.
“Well my dad is a software developer, and his has his own business, and he makes websites for other people, so he had me signed up for this, I’m really interested in coding. It sounds really fun and I know that it pays well. And I want to go to vet school and it’s really expensive.”
Faith Hankel will be a junior in high school this fall and she describes the skills she can use from the camp to help her with her aspiring future career.
“Well I want to do architectural design, and I know I can combine it together, and I know it’s going to get me some better jobs in the future, it’s just going to look good. I know it’s going to be easier for me to understand, since I’ve learned it when I was younger and I’ll already have part of it in my brain when I get older.”
Whatling is hoping to make these camps an annual event.