On February 22nd, 3 students from 2 Loudoun County high schools attended the DCFem Tech Inspire event in Washington DC. DCFemTech is a coalition of women leaders aimed at amplifying women in tech organizations, sharing resources, and bringing leaders together to close the gender gap. The yearly Inspire event is a celebration of the success of women in the DC tech community.

“Riley, Emily and Tanya are all amazing young women in Loudoun’s schools, all involved in educational community efforts, and it was my privilege to be able to introduce them to the larger DC area tech community.”, said Mr. Bock, Director of Loudoun Codes.

Riley works for the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in their ‘explainer’ program where she uses hands-on activity carts and interactive demonstrations to help visitors learn about the science and innovation behind flight and space exploration. She spoke at our Loudoun Computer Science fair last September, and she is a VA Winner of NCWiT’s Aspirations Award.

Emily works as an intern for American Public University, participates in Loudoun Valley’s CyberPatriot competitions, was a co-founder of the Blue Ridge Middle School cyberpatriot program after she had the idea to ‘train the next generation’ of Valley’s students, and is a 2017 Honorable Mention of NCit’s Aspirations Award.

Tanya is a senior at a Loudoun County high school having taken Computer Math and Computer Science AP, and spoke about Scratch programming at our Computer Science fair last September. For her capstone project, she is working on “Cupcakes ‘n Code”, an effort to teach a workshop where girls (ages 8-14) can create a simple app and learn programming basics at Gum Spring Library in Lodoun County.