How can an institution get young women to enroll in its computer-science program? By reaching out to them long before they ever make it to college, perhaps.
That’s the theory behind the University of Texas at Austin’s First Bytes program, a weeklong summer camp for girls in junior high and high school. By mixing math lectures and computer workshops with yoga classes and bowling trips, the camp’s directors hope to make computer science seem well-rounded, not wonky, and to "dispel the myth that computer science is only for guys," according to Mary Esthel Middleton, the program’s coordinator. (The Daily Texan)
