I am a 14-year-old freshman at Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Miami, Florida, and a co-founder of CODeLLA, a not-for-profit organization that teaches underprivileged 9- to 13-year-old Hispanic girls coding, entrepreneurial, and STEM skills (www.codella.org). CODeLLA currently offers a once-a-week program during the school year and an eight-week, six-hour-a-day summer immersion program.
I believe that helping these girls expand their horizons and escape stereotypical labeling, has been transformative, not only for the girls, but for me as well. I am also a public speaker on the need for coding, entrepreneurship, and STEM skills for 9- to 13-year-old Hispanic girls, and I was a featured panelist at Miami Device.
Empowering Latinos to join STEM fields will support not only them, but their ever-growing communities as well. I hope to inspire a community of Latinos to pursue their passions, flourish in the workplace, and continue the cycle of inspiration. Coding is about contributing to the community, working on large open-source projects, and solving social problems in new and innovative ways. My experiences have nurtured my love for computer science and have instilled in me a need to reach further and learn more.
