I.T. Girls

I.T. Girls

Tracey Welson-Rossman thinks technology has a “marketing problem” with regard to young girls.

BY LEDA KOPACH

By 2015, there will be 1.5 million tech jobs in the United States. Right now, we are on track to fill only 60 percent of them.

Here’s another stat: Less than 25 percent of all IT workers in the United States are female.

Tracey Welson-Rossman sees a solution.

Several years ago, the 1988 LeBow grad founded TechGirlz, a nonprofit startup aimed to engage girls in technology and encourage them to pursue careers in the field. Though not a “tech girl” per se — she is in charge of the marketing and sales for the software development firm Chariot Solutions — she is committed to the cause. She has also recently been named to Forbes’ “Forty Over 40 Women to Watch” list.

Welson-Rossman is motivated by what she sees as a great opportunity. “When you consider that almost all companies use some sort of technology to work with their customers, the numbers will only continue to grow. Not all of these problems will be solved by off-shoring jobs. We really need to get women into the field.”

Like any good entrepreneur, she did her homework before diving into this project. Through market research and surveys with her target market — 13- and 14-year-old girls — and their parents and teachers, she determined a significant need exists to educate girls about technology.

“We found that girls didn’t really understand that the cell phones, laptops and the other digital media they use daily are a big part of technology careers. That was shocking.”

Through Welson-Rossman’s contacts in the region, primarily developers, she gathered a group of volunteers to develop a curriculum that was educational and interesting to middle school-aged girls. Girls learn how to create mobile apps and the basics of coding for games, among other fun activities. To date, about 250 girls have participated in the program. Classes are held on Saturdays throughout the school year, and a Tech Entrepreneur boot camp runs during the summer.

“We found that girls didn’t really understand that the cell phones, laptops and the other digital media they use daily are a big part of technology careers. That was shocking.”

Welson-Rossman says that most of the girls who become involved in TechGirlz come back again and again. “But as our seventh and eighth graders get older, we need to figure out how we will continue to keep them interested.”

She thinks fun games could help, and recently convinced Frank Lee — co-founder and co-director of the Drexel Game Design Program, which helped turn Philadelphia’s 29-story Cira Centre into a screen for the classic video game Pong — to let her “tech girls” to try their hand at it.

TechGirlz programs are free, which helps Welson-Rossman with her goal to reach as many girls as possible. Grants from foundations and corporations provide classroom supplies. She and her advising team are working on developing a video and a “playbook” for educators to teach the curriculum. The library will contain workshops available for free download for educators and other instructors to teach the workshops, which will allow the program to expand outside of the Philadelphia region. (Visit TechGirlz.org for more information.)

In Welson-Rossman’s view, technology has a “marketing problem” with regard to young girls. “We need to learn and understand how girls connect to technology. They know what technology they like, but they have to understand that technology is how they are going to get there.”