Legacy in the Making GIRLS WHO CODE In 2012, two years after she lost her bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as a New York Congresswoman, Reshma Saujani launched a nonprofit organization that is creating social change by successfully leading, not following, the government’s educational agenda. Girls Who Code, Reshma’s launch, is on a mission to “inspire, educate and equip girls with the computing skills to pursue 21st century opportunities.” Over the long term, her organization is committed to creating greater gender parity in the field of computing by working on making the kind of disruptive change where the world doesn’t need her organization called Girls Who Code because, one day, every girl will know how to code. Recently, The Legacy Lab had the opportunity to speak to Reshma about her inspiration for pursuing the Girls Who Code dream, the distance that exists between what her organization aims for and what it has achieved, and the importance of her taking risks to write the legacy that she is meant to live. math and science. I shied away from pursuing anything that required hav- 00101110010_GIRLS_WHO_CODE11100010000110 ing a technical background because I did not feel that I was smart enough. Throughout my early career, in law and in finance, this haunted me. Both of my parents were engineers. 0010111010010110111100010101101000_GIRLS_WHO_CODE_100101101111000101011010001011 They came to this country as ref- ugees from Uganda in the 1970s. My parents were at home one day watching television when dictator Idi Amin said they had 90 days to get out. They applied to what must have felt like every country for refugee status. They got rejection after rejec- 00101110010110010101_GIRLS_WHO_CODE_01100010111001011001010100011100010000110 tion until, eventually, they received a letter from the United States saying, ‘Congratulations, you have been accepted.’ They showed up in Chicago, Illinois, wearing T-shirts and shorts because they threw a dart on a map, and that’s where it landed. 00101110100101_GIRLS_WHO_CODE_0010111010010110111100010_GIRLS_WHO_CODE My parents built a life for themselves Can you tell us a little about how organization called Girls Who Code in America. Seeing everything this your upbringing, as well as your because I’m not a professional coder. country did for my family inspired academic and professional career, Growing up, I distinctly remember me to want to give back someday has culminated in the launch of Girls sitting with my dad at the dinner through public service. 00101110010110010101000111000100001100010111001011001010100011100010000110 Who Code? table while he quizzed me on my math homework. I felt uncomfortable In college, I studied political science, I often tell people that I am such because I didn’t know the answers. policy and the law. By the time I an unlikely person to have started an I never thought that I was good at finished school, I accrued $300,000 2016 1 in loan debt. My plan was to move to ocratic establishment. And I didn’t 2012 working to understand the prob- New York, pay off the debt in a year or know what I was going to do next. lem: Why was there a lack of women two and then run for office. In 2008, in the field of computer science? My several years later, I was getting ready passion for this topic was rooted in to turn 33 years old, hating my job creating greater economic opportu- in the financial services industry and “I saw Hillary Clinton give nity. In the technology sector, where feeling like I lost sight of my dream. her concession speech when jobs were growing, where a person Then, I saw Hillary Clinton give her she ran her first campaign could make a lot of money as a concession speech when she ran her to be the President of the software engineer, where the related first campaign to be the President of United States. She said income could help to move a family the United States. She said something up to the middle class, why were very inspiring, ‘Just because I failed something very inspiring, women so badly underrepresented? doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try too.’ I ‘Just because I failed I began to explore what it would take felt that she was talking to me. I was doesn’t mean you shouldn’t to put together a curriculum aimed at still an idealistic woman. I felt time was try too.’ I felt that she was young women. I became very focused running out. If I was going to pursue talking to me.” on identifying women with an interest my journey, and run for office, I was in tech and inspiring their talent for going to have to do it soon. So I quit applying it. This became my full-time my job and went for it. focus. It became the obsession of It was a crazy expedition. I ran as the someone who is, herself, not a pro- In 2010, at the age of 35, I ran for the young candidate who was a disruptor. fessional coder. This was the origin of United States Congress in a Demo- At the time, I was the first candidate Girls Who Code. cratic primary against a person who talking about technology in terms had been there for 18 years. I had of helping to get people who do not When I named it, I thought Girls Who a one percent chance of winning, a normally vote out to vote. We used Code would be a fun name. I did not 100-page policy book and a banging Jack Dorsey’s Square for the first market test it. I didn’t spend millions website. I remember, in the first two time, and we used NationBuilder first trying to figure out if it was going to weeks, getting $50,000 donated too. On the campaign trail, we would work. I do not think I asked a friend online from Indian aunties who were often talk about where future jobs or even my husband or anybody. I just so happy that an Indian girl was were at—and they were in tech. When went on GoDaddy, the name was running. During the campaign, in you run for office, you end up visiting available, and I bought it. At the start, total, I raised about $1.3 million. The with a lot of schools. I was going to I borrowed a friend’s conference Daily News endorsed me. I was in The lots of robotics labs and computer room for the first program and paid New York Times several times above science classes, and I would often for pizza for the girls on my credit the fold. CNBC had called this one see a bunch of boys all clamoring card. My husband’s assistant built our of the hottest races in the country. I to be the next Steve Jobs or Mark first website by putting up a splash had convinced a lot of people that I Zuckerberg. I remember thinking to page. It was all very bootstrap. I did was going to win. On Election Day, myself, where are all the girls? That not walk into this on day one knowing I remember clutching my father’s question stayed with me. After I lost that I would help to build a move- hand, watching the television screen. the election for Congress, I reflected ment or having any idea that four The votes for me never went past 19 on all the young women who were years later we would have reached percent. I lost. My victory party never absent from the technology revolu- 40,000 girls in nearly every state. But happened. I was broke and humili- tion. So what did I do about it? Well, from those earnest beginnings, have ated. I pissed off many in the Dem- I spent about all of 2011 and half of come some really meaningful results. 2016 2 when personal computers became girls excited. Because if it weren’t more popular, marketing was more for having that real-life experience, “Our research shows that precisely aimed at boys. When you they would have no idea what it really read the biographies of influencers means, or what it really looks like, to 74 percent of high school like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, be a computer scientist. girls want a career that they talk about how their parents is focused on making the introduced them to technology at a In total, the mission of Girls Who world a little bit better. young age: ‘Got a computer as a kid, Code is to inspire, educate and equip Girls want to change the took it apart and, boom, there was girls with computing skills to pursue world. Making a connection Facebook.’ Having a toy or thing to 21st century opportunities. When it between coding and being a take apart, play with and understand comes to the educating and equip- change agent is a high in order to really learn and develop ping components, beyond showing priority for us.” was transformative for male entre- girls how to tinker, we want to teach preneurs. Women and girls need them real computer science, includ- to similarly have that experience. I ing deep technical computing skills. would add that media has also played When it comes to being inspiring, Why is it that girls are so a big role in pushing girls out of the we want to dramatically change the underrepresented in the field of field by portraying an image of the image of a computer scientist to be computer science, and what can programmer as, basically, a dude in a far more diverse than some dude in you tell us about the mission Girls hoodie in a basement, drinking Red his basement staring at a computer Who Code is on to help address Bull® and not showering.