The next IT generation

We met the Sharma family just over three years ago. Their mother, Madhumalti, is campaigning for children, especially girls, to be given an introduction to programming. Her workshop, Workshop4Me, offers a game-based approach to the world of coding. A workshop that began in the family living room, but which has now attracted attention as it is organised at the Geesseknäppchen campus, with sessions for different ages, in English as well as in French.

Over the years, the aim has remained the same for the mother of this family. To have more young people trained and motivated to pursue studies and careers in STEM (an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Some of the younger students have grown up with the Saturday afternoon sessions and want to give back to the community, this time by being on the other side, as a teacher. Such is the case of Tereza Bílková. At 17, she has just graduated from the European School. If she is now interested in STEM and considering a career in scientific research, it is not by chance. Or rather, it did. It all started when her parents signed her up for a children's coding course when she was just 8 years old and spoke virtually no English. "It was originally my parents' idea to sign me up for this course, they thought it would be good for me to develop my creativity. But I was very shy at that age, and I wasn't very comfortable in English either, I was afraid to speak even though we had lessons at school. I have a sister and a brother who also went, although my brother is more inclined towards the social sciences. I was really lucky that my parents were open-minded", she says.