Coding? I didn’t even know what it was until my third year of high school. All I used my PC for was Facebook.
At the Coding Girls Press Conference [see news: Coding is Freedom], we met twenty-year-old Aurora Odierno, who is studying Bioinformatics at Sapienza University of Rome. She only discovered the logic and creativity of coding during her third year of high school, but immediately understood it would be her thing.
“I attended the Liceo scientifico Peano in Monterotondo and the Professor proposed we join the Coding Girls as a school-work programme," remembers Aurora. "I was rather diffident as, at the time, I only used my PC to go on Facebook! However, I trusted her and that changed everything.”
I now attend a rather unusual faculty, that of Bioinformatics at Sapienza University of Rome, a cutting-edge programme held completely in English. Thanks to Coding Girls, I put together my love of biology with technology. At home, everyone was quite surprised, as it’s a big commitment, but I’m set on completing the programme.”
We asked Aurora to tell us more about her experience with Coding Girls.
"I have a fond memory of the literary cafés that we organised at school with younger and older students. We had become a Coding Girls Hub. We practiced on the Scratch Platform so that we could teach our peers and younger girls how to use it. The primary school children were extraordinary. They were far more curious than the older students and asked so many questions.”
A fun memory? “The boys were always jealous because they wanted to participate. However, we accepted them … we could create a reverse gender gap!”
