About

Why we started the club

This organization was started in the spring of 2019 by the previous co-presidents of Code The Gap, Sree Pemma and Swati Rampalli. They were inspired by the mission of Girls Who Code, a nonprofit organization dedicated to closing the gender gap in computer science by supporting young girls in their goals in STEM fields. Code the Gap was helped in their efforts by Girls Who Code who provided funds to them.

What our purpose is

With our principal goal being reaching out to underrepresented K-12 students to motivate them in pursuing a career in the STEM field, we strongly believe in raising awareness for the gender and racial disparities in the domain of technology. Our goal is to do our part in leveling the playing field for all groups interested in STEM careers as best as we can while promoting an increase in diversity. Our hope is that this will result in the students feeling more comfortable with, if not excited about, being a part of the STEM community in the future. This shared exploration of new programming concepts will leave the students feeling like they are a part of a strong group of young computer scientists.

Why inclusion is important in STEM

Code The Gap is a student group that seeks to encourage the participation of historically underrepresented groups in STEM fields. We hope to show underrepresented students a reason to be excited about a career in technology and hopefully go on to become a part of a chain of strong diverse leaders. With technology being such an integral part of our society, we believe that unique perspectives would help the STEM field ultimately reach its full potential by representing the innovativeness and the needs of all communities equally.

Our Plans

In Spring 2021, we started our first session with the Community School of Excellence and it was a huge success. We had about 15 volunteer instructors and 15-20 students who benefited from our Python classes. 

In Spring 2022, we continued with the Community School of Excellence and also added in Murray Middle School to our volunteer program. We had about 15 volunteer instructors and 15-20 students from each school.

For Spring 2023, we will be working with Nova Classical Academy and John Glenn Middle School. We are expecting around 8 volunteer instructors and 15-20 students from each school, being all in person.

In the future, we plan to expand to new schools in the Twin Cities to reach more students and recruit more volunteer instructors. In addition to virtual and in-person instruction, we also plan to have events like study sessions, hackathons, and visits from guest speakers.