"Our Mission - Our mission is to teach people software development in order to help them pursue their passions."<p>Doesn't it stand to reason that if their passion was software development, they'd be doing it irregardless of their gender?
I've worked with the two fellows starting this program. I'll publicly vouch for their seriousness and competence in seeing this project through. Whatever your thoughts on these "bootcamp" style training programs that have been popping up around the country (see: Dev Bootcamp, Code Academy, Hungry Academy, Hacker School), they have a real potential to bridge the unfortunate chasm between the educated underemployed and the desperate and ever-growing need for software developers and perhaps eventually replace the broken system of CS education in this country.<p>If anybody can do it, David and Christian can. Best of luck guys!
I know some people taught by Christian recently who couldn't praise him highly enough. I'm told he is not only highly skilled but also personable and really knows how to get a concept across. I think this is a really great program and hope there are some courageous woman out there ready for this. It's hard work with little sleep in an intensive course, but so rewarding.
Great Idea. I'm still waiting for someone to come up with the online version of this. Many women simply couldn't travel to SF or NYC (Hacker School) for several weeks to get training. In a Mother-Father-Children household, it is still more feasible for the Father to be away for weeks rather than the Mom. Society is just used to that type of scenario more often than the other way around.<p>It is even more difficult for single moms (which I'm sure is a much larger number compared to single fathers in the US). Anyhow, my point is that for many girls, there are valid reasons why they can't follow their 'passions' or why they would need to follow them while keeping up with other responsibilities as well.<p>The advantage of having programs like these where they could have the input and support from mentors and a group of fellow students is certainly a big plus and I would love to see someone replicating the same environment online so that accessibility to these opportunities is not an issue.
Much to say… I recently got a chance to meet these two people and within that first meeting, I could tell they were on to something… most importantly; it was coming from the right place. I gotta speak on Christians teaching style, having met a lot of programmers and read many books; it’s a treat getting a chance to meet and learn from a person that has so many contexts from which to pull a clearly explained, simple to understand answer. But that doesn’t really do him justice in the sense that, it’s important to understand when you can say more and when you should hold off, and he’s got that. I’m currently taking classes from Christian and David (tonight in fact) and I can say that I look forward to getting the insights that you can only get when you talk to people who are intimately familiar with the environment around development and the coming and going technology and programing paradigms. They even brought a Google engineer the first night, come on! That's pretty COOL! For me, this is the most excellent way to get a chance to rev up my skill set without having to put my carrer aside for 18 months to several years to get it from a formal school. And on that subject, all the engenieers and CEOs that I’ve talked to say the same thing, education is awesome, but show me what you’ve built. From day one in our class, they said on day two we’re gonna start on our projects. That’s learning by doing… and if you’ve ever spent 30 hours figuring out that you missed setting a reference somewhere that coulda been spotted in 15 seconds by someone who was looking over your shoulder… then you can appreciate a place where your day consist of coding with peers rather than reading about chapter 23 by yourself! Let me build something that has meaning to me... and they're doing just that! David is awesome too! Very personable and a testament to how good of a teacher Christian is… ‘cuz he can get down with the code too!
Gotta go! Got some work I gotta show up to class with. These people leave you feeling like you’re so lucky to have them as your new friends that you don’t want to disappoint them or yourself.
I’m sending a friend to go and apply for their summer fellowship for women. I love to see anyone who just needed a push… finally get there! Much Luv Guys!
If women are given equal treatment, education, opportunities, etc. as they grow up from day 1, would that balance the ratio of female engineers with males?<p>Honestly, I don't think so. With all the freedom and opportunity in the world, the differences in brain chemistry between genders will tend to favor particular career paths.<p>Preemptive disclaimer: I don't think that people should be shoehorned into a particular career because of their gender, nor do I think that equality between genders in terms of employment and pay is unworthy of effort. Just don't be shocked if that ratio never hits 50/50 because women with the opportunities still don't want to be engineers.
Ok, i would like to see a more even ratio of men to women in software. However, making things that are "only for women" will likely increase the resentment between the sexes.<p>I do think we have a system problem in our education, but it's not that STEM favors men, it's that the REST of education heavily favors women. The recent college attendance numbers are a pretty good indication. STEM is just harder to discriminate, so more men are drawn to it.
I'm really sure a fair few women will resent being given "unfair" advantages. I've definitely witnessed this in regards to Google giving some free conference passes to a number of women.<p>Maybe the education system just needs to interest females before they get the chance to realise it's "uncool".<p>The only dev team I've been in thus far has included a woman, in a workplace which I consider a meritocracy. I've yet to work in a team unsuited to women.
I think it's good that they're trying to get young people into software development, but I don't think it's a problem that there is a gender imbalance. With that said, if there is a way to get a certain group involved, then more power to them.