BEMIDJI—A BSU staff member and two high school students from Red Lake are scheduled to meet with Chelsea Clinton at a signing of her new book, “It’s Your World,” on Friday in St. Paul.
Clinton’s book includes a mention of Girls Who Code, a non-profit program meant to inspire high-school aged girls to learn computing and coding skills and, ultimately, increase the number of women working in high-tech professions, a release from BSU said. The book specifically mentions the Northern Minnesota Girls Who Code chapter organized in fall 2014 by Jennifer Theisen, a programmer in BSU’s programming, networking and servers office.
Two of the club’s members from Red Lake, Alise May, a 16-year-old high school junior, and Diamond Cloud-Sayers, a 14-year-old ninth-grader, have used what they learned at the club to create an app called Ojibwe Helper. Their app, which helps teach the Ojibwe language, is featured in Clinton’s book.
Here’s the excerpt:
“Another effort, led by the remarkable Reshma Saujani, is Girls Who Code, a nonprofit program that teaches female high school students how to code and mentors the young women in the program as they create their own innovative apps. Girls who’ve participated in Girls Who Code have created apps that help kids with autism learn through music, help users decide what items to recycle, help improve public safety by locking a phone’s texting function when a driver is going over fifteen miles per hour and even one to help girls learn self-defense. Alise and Diamond, members of the Chippewa tribe in Minnesota, created “Ojibwe Helper,” an app to help preserve their heritage and culture through teaching their traditional Ojibwe language to app users. Very cool. If you’re interested in learning more and applying, go to girlswhocode.com.”
Chelsea Clinton is the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Her book features stories about children and teens who have made changes, some big and some small, in their families and communities worldwide.
Friday’s book-signing event is at 5 p.m. at the Red Balloon Bookshop, located at 891 Grant Ave. in St. Paul.
BSU’s Girls Who Code club will begin meeting again in January and expects its membership to total nearly 30 girls for its second year. Nearly two dozen are expected to return from the program’s first year. Club members come from schools in the Bemidji area and many travel to Bemidji by bus from local communities such as Red Lake and Ponemah, the release said.