For Ada Lovelace Day 2015, I’m honouring Jean MacDonald from App Camp for Girls. Jean was a partner at Smile Software and at one of Apple’s Developer Conferences, she noticed that there were very few women developers in attendance. Having been to Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls, Jean decided to start App Camp for Girls in 2012 with the express purpose “to empower girls by providing engaging and accessible educational programs in software development.”
App Camp for Girls kicked off with an IndieGoGo campaign to raise $50,000, and in a month managed to raise over $100,000. Beginning with a beta camp in Portland, Oregon in June 2013, the volunteer driven organization has now spread to provide App Camps for Girls in Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia – truly international!
And so it is truly well deserved that Jean is my honoree this year – she took it upon herself to attend Big Nerd Ranch to learn Apple iOS programming! Oh, and she also plays guitar and the drums in Ruby Calling!