IBM Hosts "Women in Technology" Program at Peekskill Middle School

Visitors from IBM recently conducted a “Women in Technology” workshop for 31 7th grade girls at Peekskill Middle School. During the workshop students learned how to read and write code and used this new knowledge to create their own mobile application. 

The program focused on teaching students digital fluency and aimed to empower girls to express their creativity through digital technologies. In addition to learning code and app development, students also had the opportunity to learn about careers in related fields while working with IBM female role models from the industry.

“This is one way IBM is trying to go out into the community and get girls interested in technology, science and math at a young age,” Sonya Miller, Director of Human Resource and Marketing Communications for IBM. “Today we’re teaching these ladies about the logic of coding. Hopefully it sparks their interests and will result in more women in the technical fields."

Administrators at Peekskill Middle School were excited to bring this 21st century technology into their classrooms and said that students embraced the day’s lessons.

“This is the new technology,” said PKMS Assistant Principal, Dr. June Ann Campolongo. “This is where it’s at and these students understand that. This program has been a huge success so far. The students are really into it.”

Students were selected to participate in the program based off recommendations from their teachers and guidance counselors. Those that took part in the day’s activities said that they found the class extremely informative and that they hope that the middle school will look into offering similar classes in the future.

“It would be cool to have a class like this where we could build apps,” said Peekskill Middle School student Akua Yeboah. “We could eventually make an app for our school which tells us what day it is and what our schedule is.”