Karlie Kloss Majorly Expands Kode With Klossy Camps
In 2015, inspired by her own journey learning to code and the desire to empower other young women to do the same, Karlie Kloss started her first Kode With Klossy class with 21 girls. In the years since, not only has Karlie's voice grown in the tech space, but Kode With Klossy has expanded alongside and in the summer of 2017, the program's summer camps welcomed over 300 girls eager to learn the languages that are coming to define our modern era.
This year, Karlie and the Kode With Klossy team are expanding the camps in a huge way yet again — summer 2018 will see 50 two-week Kode With Klossy camps in 25 cities, serving 1,000 young women. Which means if you live in the metro areas of Albuquerque, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, New York City, Omaha, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, or Tulsa, there's going to be a Kode With Klossy camp near you.
"It's an exciting next chapter for Kode with Klossy," Karlie told Teen Vogue over the phone this week. "We're continuing to grow our camps, the number of camps, the locations of camps, and the programs that we'll be offering. Beyond just offering Kode with Klossy Camps for girls 13 to 18 to come and learn how to code over two-week summer camps, we also are building out curriculum and building out the teacher training program which has been just an awesome next step for us."
For that teacher training program, Kode With Klossy is teaming up with Teach for America to help continue making an impact for all students after the camps are done for the summer. Through their partnership with TFA, they'll recruit and train teachers in the Kode With Klossy curriculum, and once summer's over, those teachers will be able to take those lessons back to their schools. "There's only 40 percent of schools that teach computer science," Karlie said. "One of the biggest obstacles to increasing access to K through 12 schools is the lack of trained computer science teachers. By working with Teach for America, Kode with Klossy is helping equip these teachers with the skills and the training needed that they can bring computer science back to the communities and back to the classrooms. It's been an amazing partnership."
From beginning to returning scholars (did we mention that the entire camp is free?), Kode With Klossy provides an education in multiple languages, starting with Ruby for first-year campers, and progressing to Javascript and HTML/CSS for second-year scholars and Swift (AKA what you need to build your own iPhone app) for those returning yet again. And by the end of two weeks, each girl has her hand in creating her own website or app. Kode With Klossy alumni have gone on to win hackathons and attend Ivy League schools to study computer science — truly showing the impact of the program.
If you're interested in applying, but maybe a little on the fence about spending two whole weeks of your summer coding, Karlie has some words of encouragement. "It's really something that is fun and a super creative skill. It's something that I think part of the barrier to entry, beyond just not having access to classes or teachers who offer this learning, is also just the barrier that we put in front of ourselves sometimes," she says/ " Thinking something is too hard or not for me because I don't see other people in the industry who look like me, or it's not something that I think I can be good at. You don't know until you try. Also it's such a creative skill set, or it can be used in such creative ways."
And if you're worried that camp is just all computers all the time, there are a few other perks (besides learning some truly valuable skills) to consider. "We have really delicious, healthy snacks," Karlie says. "We have speakers that come and give talks at lunch. They're everything from engineers to entrepreneurs, ranging in the really best in class in their field from top companies in tech. Whether it's Facebook, Instagram, Google, Snapchat, women who — and men we have male speakers as well — but really amazing women who want to share their journey."
Applications are open today on kodewithklossy.com and you can apply for the next month.
Related: Karlie Kloss Shares Why She Learned to Code
