This year, Sanya Gupta (‘24) won the Girl Scouts Gold Award, the most prestigious achievement within the Girl Scouts. She was awarded for her outstanding effort and initiative, inspiring girls to participate in computer science.
The Gold Award is awarded to only 5.4% of eligible scouts and has a rigorous application process. Of the 2.5 million Girl Scouts in the United States, only around 3,000 receive this award each year.
“Recipients must demonstrate sustainable impact, strategic leadership, and the ability to take on significant challenges,” said Gupta.
Founding the nonprofit GirlsInCS
Gupta’s first experience with computer science was not a positive one. She held the perception that the CS field was narrowly confined to coding, which she disliked.
“I translated that initial dislike of coding to a complete dismissal of the CS field. But over the years, my mindset changed,” said Gupta.
As she was exposed to different aspects of computer science, Gupta found herself gravitating towards web development and front-end design. Through this, she realized there was more to computer science than she originally thought.
“As my involvement in the field grew, I learned about the gender gap in CS,” said Gupta. “I found out that women only earn 18% of computer science Bachelor’s degrees in the United States. Despite the high job demand, computer science remains a male-dominated field.”
Gupta surveyed Amador students and found that only 4% of girls were interested in pursuing computer science. She interviewed college students and female industry professionals, all of whom confirmed that CS is hugely male-dominated.
“I wanted to show girls all that CS had to offer. I knew everything that went through their minds because the exact same things had gone through mine,” said Gupta.
Gupta founded GirlsInCS, a nonprofit organization that offers free lessons in various fields of computer science to young girls.
“I’ve been holding free introductory computer science classes for middle school girls. [This has] benefited hundreds of girls locally and internationally over the past year,” said Gupta.
In the past year, she expanded the organization to include chapters in Dallas, San Diego, and Seattle. But Gupta felt that she could do even more to close the gender gap in CS.
Leading the September 2022 Hackathon
“I wanted to do something more impactful. I wanted to reach out to a larger audience and expose them to the different sides of technology,” said Gupta.
In Sept. 2022, Gupta hosted a global hackathon in Pleasanton Middle School’s multipurpose room. The hackathon consisted of a series of workshops, presentations, and interactive sessions.
Gupta also invited influential women guest speakers, including former Girl Scouts CEO and NASA scientist Sylvia Acevedo.
“Over the course of a few days, the girls learned coding with Python. They learned artificial intelligence, web development with HTML, and prototyping with Figma. [They learned] how to deliver a successful pitch to a judging panel, and how to create a business analysis,” said Gupta.
During the two days, more than 120 girls attended the event in person, with an additional 50 joining online from as far as Brazil and Canada.
For her leadership and initiative, Gupta was awarded the Girl Scouts Gold Award. The award requires 80 hours of work. She completed more than 350.
“I feel proud because I saw a bunch of the girls’ mindsets change. Actually coding along, doing the workshops, and having people to answer your questions is so helpful,” said Gupta.
In addition to the Gold Award, Gupta earned the Aspirations in Computing award from the National Center for Women & Information Technology, which is only awarded to less than 9% of girls nationwide. She was also selected as the keynote speaker for the Girls Scouts Gold Award ceremony.
As she turns to the future, Gupta has shifted her focus to ensuring her actions continue to have a positive impact in the years to come.
“I’m currently guiding a group of girls to run their own hackathon in the upcoming months. I’ve also published a lot of resources on the GirlsInCS website itself, so they have a solid foundation to begin event planning,” said Gupta.
