The Department of Gender Affairs recently joined with the Department of Education (DOE) and the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School to celebrate International Girls in Information Communication Technology (ICT) Day 2023 with the first ever Girls in ICT Hackathon.
International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated annually on the 4th Thursday in April and the theme this year was ‘Digital Skills for Life’. In the Caribbean, though the recent trend is that girls tend to outperform boys in reading and writing skills, they continue to be under-represented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Unfortunately, many of the career, financial and innovation opportunities are increasingly underpinned by the very areas in which girls are under-represented.
The Girls in ICT Hackathon was the first exclusively for girls on Anguilla. It targeted Third Form students who are at that very position in their academic life where they and their parents begin to make choices about subjects to be taken at school, areas of academic interest and ultimately, career decisions.
Teachers Shauna Richardson and Rochelle Grant of the ALHCS were instrumental in organising students’ participation, preparation of the IT lab and on the spot coordination. Tr Shauna wrote the challenge which comprised two options to successfully complete a Python question. Python is a computer programming language and the test required the girls to actually utilize coding skills.
“It is important for girls to feel comfortable being involved in this arena,” Tr Shauna noted. “In the upper forms, in the computer science classes I teach, it’s usually one girl to every two or three boys – roughly about 30% girls.”
The Hackathon started with the explanation of the rules and regulations by Tr Rochelle Grant and this was followed by an inspiring Pep Rally by three young women who currently are studying or working in ICT – Ms. Ivory Crump, Ms. Bonnie Ruan & Ms. Ciara Banks.
Twenty one (21) Third Form girls registered for the Python Hackathon. They worked in groups of two or three. Their solutions were judged by a panel of three judges – Mrs. Khonn Hazell Fleming, Technology Integration Coach for the Department of Education (DOE), Mrs. Dawnette Bryan-Lico, Senior System Analyst, at the Department of Information Technology & E-Government Services (DITES) and Ms. Mmelona Hughes, Systems Analysts at the Ministry of Social Development.
Solutions were judged for completeness, efficiency and creativity with the final winning team edging out their nearest rivals on the creativity element of the Hackathon. Placing third were Ms. Janiqua Brown and Ms. Adecia Seecharran. Second place went to Ms. Soriah Alcindor and Ms. Leyla Haskins-Brodie. The winners were Ms. Myah-Michelle Romney and Ms Abigail Campbell.
Gender Development Coordinator, Mrs. Kemoloy Murphy, said she was “pleased with the overall execution of the first Girls in ICT Day Hackathon; I give kudos to all the students who participated and congratulations to our top 3 teams. Initiatives such as this are important as we continuously seek to create spaces for our girls to participate in and acquire the skills and knowledge required to thrive in areas where women are traditionally underrepresented. We are thankful for all the sponsors and contributors that worked together to support our objective of empowering the girls to pursue a future in ICT.”
Sponsors for the first Girls in ICT Hackathon were Anglec which provided participation gift bags to all the girls as well as a special prize for the winners, Digicel which provided prizes for the second and third place winners and SnapIT Kidz Tech out of St Maarten.
The Department of Education was pleased to participate in the first locally held Girls in ICT Hackathon and encourages corporate citizens as well as individuals to support the work of the Department of Education which impacts the winder community on Anguilla.
The Department of Education’s Mission is “Raising Standards for Sustainable Development”.
The Department of Education’s contact details are (264) 497-2874 or education.mailbox@gov.ai.
