Every summer, Microsoft Reno sponsors a free camp for young women interested in the tech and STEAM fields. It's called DigiGirlz, and this is the camp's tenth year in Reno.
"We are so excited about the tenth anniversary of DigiGirlz," said Carey Serfontein, General Manager of Microsoft's Operations Center in Reno. "We're at maximum registration and all it's about is getting girls excited and inspired about a career in STEAM - Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Math. We know for girls there's a gender gap and we know we have a way to impact that, and that's what these two days are about is getting people excited and hopefully they will pursue a career in technology with us."
More than 120 high schoolers signed up for the two-day camp this year. There are new faces - and some that return every year.
"My dad's boss introduced me to the program and thought it would be the perfect opportunity for me to get involved in STEAM," said Samantha Albiniano, a Hug High student who's attending Digigirlz for the fourth time. "It's a way to get introduced to everything, so if I decide to go into a STEAM-based field I'll have a decent understanding going in."
She says there's always something new to learn.
"In previous years, one of my favorite things we've done here is coding and its learning a whole new language," she said. "Being able to design something on the computer is so exciting, I never thought i would be able to do it.Year after year it's constantly something new and I can always use it outside of the program."
The young women spend two days learning about things like coding, robotics, data collection and design thinking. Microsoft developed the program nearly two decades ago to address the gender gap in the tech sector.
"It's a totally different world from where I was when I was in school," Serfontein said. "And I'm still sometimes the only woman in the room and I can't wait for that to change. Women have such power, especially when they think about the things they bring that are uniquely their own. We need more of that in business, in science, in education and in engineering and we hope to get these girls jazzed about that in the next couple of days."
There are networking and career path opportunities at DigiGirlz as well.
"My favorite part is being able to talk to people from other schools," Albiniano said. "All the guest speakers that share so much of what they've been through, it helps me understand what it will be like as I'm going from High School to College and helps me form a plan as to what I'm going to do. DigiGirlz is an absolutely amazing program and you meet so many new people. If could stay longer, I totally would."
