Summer of STEM: Growing and Learning with 2022 Diversity Programs

Goldman Sachs is proud to be a corporate sponsor of two high school technology programs as part of our Diversity STEM Summer programs: Girls Who Code and Kode With Klossy.

Girls Who Code

Over the past 10 years, WE network has sponsored Girls Who Code (GWC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging young women in high school to pursue academic and career opportunities in technology. This summer we virtually hosted 62 high school girls, two teachers and four teaching assistants as part of program which ran from July 12th to July 22nd. Students heard from Christine Smyth, who leads a number of teams within Global Markets Engineering and serves as co-head of Americas WE. Christine provided an overview of Goldman Sachs, role of Engineering at the firm and her STEM career journey. Students had the opportunity to learn about Agile practices, User Research (UX) principles, Cybersecurity, College Admissions Prep and Financial Planning from GS Engineers. Students also heard from an Analyst/Associate Panel, who talked on various topics like their career accomplishment and journey, introduction to Computer Science and college vs working. On Friday, July 22nd, the students showcased their final projects websites built using CSS, HTML and JavaScript. Students had picked up various current social topics for their websites like gender inequality, international conflicts, climate change, education inequality, etc. Their amazing projects demonstrated the hard work, creativity and learning they put in action in just two weeks.

Kode With Klossy

WE network partnered with Kode With Klossy (KWK), the nonprofit founded by supermodel and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss, for the 2nd year this summer to sponsor two camps (Dallas and New York). Kode With Klossy was launched in 2015 and offers free coding camps and other opportunities to empower female and gender non-conforming teens to pursue their passions in a tech-driven world. 

A two-week hybrid camp in Dallas hosted 20 students and ran from June 20th to July 1st. Camp was kicked off by a welcome session and introduction from Christine Smyth, who leads a number of teams within Global Markets Engineering and serves as co-head of Americas WE. Goldman Sachs Engineers provided guidance on web development, presentation techniques and UI/UX design. Prior to the conclusion of the program, students participated in a “demo day,” where they presented apps they had developed tied to topics including sustainability, health and wellness resources for women, and community engagement opportunities.

A two-week hybrid camp in New York hosted 24 students and ran from July 11th to July 22nd. Students were welcomed and introduced to Goldman Sachs by Kerry McCave, global head of Data Center and User Building Engineering, and co-head of Americas WE. She gave them an overview of the firm, alongside the different engineering roles within Goldman Sachs. She spoke about the importance of technology within the firm and gave meaningful advice to learn and get involved in tech.

Goldman Sachs Engineers mentored the students and guided them on various technology topics related to their projects. On July 22nd, students delivered their final projects at Demo Day, where they had the opportunity to present their project websites to their peers, mentors, teachers, and parents. Students picked up various social topics for their websites like addiction, abortion rights, mental health, etc.

Kerry McCave delivered the keynote address congratulating students on completing the program and encouraged them to continue to build on the knowledge learned this summer and seize every opportunity that comes their way.