Waikato IT girls leading the way

18 November, 2014

Waikato IT girls leading the way

A group of students from Waikato Diocesan School for Girls have taken their interest in computer science to the next level, by creating an IT Girls Club as part of an ongoing partnership with the University of Waikato’s Faculty of Computing & Mathematical Sciences.

The club is an extra-curricular group that aims to create opportunities for girls interested in computer science careers. The group visited the University of Waikato last week following a series of afterschool workshops taught by University of Waikato Computer Science tutor Nilesh Kanji.

The weekly school visits were a chance for Mr Kanji to take the students through the steps and mechanics involved in creating video games in the Game Maker environment.

“So far we’ve worked through Game Maker workshops on coding for games similar to Space Invaders and Pacman and we’re almost finished one for a Platform game,” says Waikato Diocesan student Devon Lee.

Mr Kanji has been impressed by the interest many of the students have shown and their dedication to taking what they have learnt one step further.

“Some of the girls have extended their games in their own time from what was described in the lessons. I was learning off them, and that is the real buzz from my point of view,” says Mr Kanji.

The idea for the club was sparked when former Waikato Diocesan School for Girls student Jojo Stewart and the Google Student Ambassador made a visit to a school assembly earlier this year to speak about their study experiences.

Jojo has just finished the first year of a Bachelor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Waikato University. She completed a first-year programming paper at the university last year while in Year 13 and was also awarded a Computer Science Undergraduate Scholarship which awarded her $5000 and the opportunity to bypass selected first-year papers and jump straight into second-year. Due to her talent in communicating computer science to others she was selected as a demonstrator and has worked with Mr Kanji on the IT Girls Club lessons.

Caption: Waikato Diocesan School students Chelsea Lin (left) and Devon Bree (right) are part of the school’s IT Girls Club, which made a visit to the University of Waikato last week to continue their lessons with Computer Science tutor Nilesh Kanji and university student Jojo Stewart (pictured centre).

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