Girls Who Code form group at Kennedy

A group of students at John F. Kennedy High School who share a passion for coding formed a school club last year that is dubbed Girls Who Code.

Faculty adviser and computer science teacher at Kennedy High School, Carla Petroro, oversees activities that are planned by four board members.

Board members Jaclyn Cohen and Cailyn Puig explained a specific checklist of items for club attendees to create a Scratch game at their Jan. 11 meeting. These items included loops and variables such as scoring, restart options, and conditionals such as winning messages, thus ending the game.

“I have learned more about myself through this club,” Puig said. “I enjoy learning the activities ahead of the meetings and find it encouraging and fun to help others execute their coding skills.”

One of the major goals of the club is to help students further their knowledge of computer science, software development, and games design. No prior knowledge of coding is required to join their monthly meetings. While members do not compete as a club, individual students have enrolled in Hackathons.