(I’ve just gotten word that the camps have both filled since I first shared this on July 6, but there is a waiting list! If your daughter is interested, be sure to get on the list so that Reeny can contact you if there’s another session.)
16-year-old Kansan Reeny Botros was at the White House in 2015, where she presented her science project to the President of the United States. (That’s her photo with former president Barack Obama!) The following year, Reeny won a grant from the National Center for Women in Technology to operate a technology-based instructional program for girls.
The program, Catwalk Coding, is a free fashion/technology camp open to girls in grades 6-12. The camps will run again this summer from July 17 to July 21, 2017.
Girls can register for morning or afternoon sessions, then on Friday morning all the girls will get together for a fashion show featuring their own inventions!
Only a limited number of spots remain. Registration through Eventbrite is required for the free camps, and these spots will fill up quickly!
Register for the morning session
Register for the afternoon session
During the week-long all-girls camp, girls will construct a scaled-down version of “Illumi-cize,” which is the invention Reeny presented to President Obama at the White House Science Fair.
By constructing their own illuminating accessory, girls will learn both electrical and coding skills from women in STEM fields. The camp will culminate on Friday morning with a blinking runway fashion show followed by discussions with women in tech about STEM opportunities. Girls will get the chance to embrace their inner engineer while satisfying their inner fashionista!
“It’s an incredible opportunity,” Reeny said to me in an email, “not only for the girls to learn about electronics and coding, but each girl gets to keep their Arduino microcontroller, pulse sensor, and other materials. Each girl will leave the camp with $70-90 of materials.”
For: Girls Grades 6-12
When: July 17-21, 2017
Where: Riverwalk Church of Christ
Morning Sessions: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., Monday – Thursday, then 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday
Afternoon Sessions: 12:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., Monday – Thursday, then 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday (Note: on Friday both camps will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for the fashion show.)
For more information and to register, visit one of the Eventbrite registration links above.
“Catwalk Coding” is an instructional course designed to attract girls to fields in STEM, sponsored by NCWIT and Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland.
