“Boolean Girl inspired me…I did think in the beginning that coding was a male dominated field, but now, Boolean Girl taught me that anyone can do it.”

-Andrea Oraze, Counselor-in-Training (CIT)

At Boolean Girl, we teach girls and other underrepresented youth ages 8-14 coding and engineering in learning environments that encourage growth and STEM understanding. Our students learn to code and build with hands-on instruction from counselors and counselors-in-training (CITs) – students who are training to be counselors for Boolean Girl. As a new year at Boolean Girl begins, we are excited to tell the story of two students who are training to be CITs.

Boolean Girl’s weekend and after-school Clubhouses are the first introduction to STEM for many young girls. For students, the curriculum including Scratch and Python programming, micro:bit engineering robotics, webpage development and artificial intelligence adds a new dimension to technology education, ushering in the next generation of young people into STEM fields. Andrea Oraze and Tessa Fontane, both ninth-grade students, recently became CITs for Boolean Girl’s Clubhouse initiative. We sat down with both of them to discuss their experience with Boolean Girl, their journeys to becoming CITs, and their future aspirations.

Andrea and Tessa were both Boolean Girl students before they graduated to the CIT position. Speaking on their experience as students with Boolean Girl, Andrea and Tessa expressed the unique perspective this earlier learning gave them. Due to the closeness in age to that of the campers, CITs have a distinctive ability to relate to participants and engage the children in the Clubhouse. Beyond the coding aspect, many first-time participants in Boolean Girl programs may have trouble adapting to a STEM-focused educational environment with a group of children they do not yet know. 

On this topic, Tessa spoke of her own experience, saying, “Even though it is for a short time, I can really connect with the campers and they seem to really like me and my friends because we are closer to their age and we can relate to them more.”

Now that they are CITs, Tessa and Andrea have learned valuable lessons in teaching effectively while solving problems on the go. For Tessa, learning to work with other counselors and teachers has made her think outside the box, engaging students while collaborating with her peers to conceive unique, thoughtful lesson plans. 

Tessa says about her experience and challenges, “Boolean Girl has taught me a lot about teaching, working with other coworkers, and troubleshooting.”

Learning to work with students of different skill levels proved challenging for Andrea. Yet, through her own experiences, she believes that allowing more advanced students to learn collaboratively during complex projects while offering her own hands-on assistance to beginner and intermediate students proved to be the solution. 

While Tessa and Andrea’s prior experience at Boolean Girl shaped their learning in STEM, both hope to bring something new to the program as CITs. Both girls expressed a desire to make their teaching personal, and by bringing their individual experiences as students and as young people, they genuinely make a difference in the lives of their students. While Tessa communicated her ambition to take on a more significant role in shaping students’ learning, Andrea felt she could make a difference by teaching more advanced programming. 

“I’m really excited to teach kids how to do more advanced programming than just Scratch,” said Andrea “Python, MicroBit, and maybe Java because it’s such an important program.”

In the future, both girls seek to continue working in Boolean Girl Summer camps and Clubhouses. Indicating an interest in becoming instructors once they reach 10th grade, Andrea and Tessa both believe that Boolean Girl has significantly affected their learning, leaving a lasting impact on their perspective of the STEM field. Their journeys from campers to CITs demonstrate the enduring effect of how the Boolean Girl curriculum is helping to shift the makeup of the STEM landscape into one more diverse and gender-equal while creating enthusiastic, lifelong learners and teachers. As the newest wave of young people enters the Boolean Girl Clubhouse, the future looks brighter than ever. 

“As a former camper, you know what it’s like to not really know anyone, so as a CIT you know how to engage the kids and get them interested in what you’re doing and not just how to code, but to have fun while doing it.” -Andrea Oraze, CIT

To learn more about Boolean Girl and its programs, visit booleangirl.org.