So my guest today is Reshma Saojani.
She is the founder, the CEO of Girls who code, which is a really cool nonprofit that works really to close the gender gap in technology and completely change the image of what a computer programmer looks like and does.
She's the author of three books, including the latest Brave, not perfect.
And along with her TED Talk, she's really sparked this worldwide conversation about how we're raising girls.
Funny enough, similar to me, Reshma actually began her career as an attorney.
Then she really moved into a very activist place in 2010, actually, she kind of surged onto the political scene as the first indian american woman to run for us Congress.
And it was that experience that really awakened her to the gender gap in computing and in classes firsthand.
When she saw that in New York City schools, that led her to start girls who code, which is this seven week summer immersion program that really powerfully inspires and educates and equips young women with the computing skills to go out into the 21st century and become a part of the tech world.
In fact, they have reached over 90,000 girls across 50 states, Canada and the UK.
And their alumni are choosing to major in cs and related fields at a rate that's 15 times the us national average, which is pretty amazing.
In today's conversation, we explore this, but we also really go deep into Reshma's story.
The early moments and awakenings and stumbles and some really tough points that shaped her and led her to devote herself in a really powerful way to being the voice of people who she just sees as being unserved and stepping out in a powerful way and advocating on their behalf.
And sometimes that means even building big, powerful organizations to make that happen.
So excited to share this conversation with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields and this is good life project.
Grew up in Chicago area, Stanford, Illinois.
Right.
And your parents actually came.
Did they come straight to that area?
Sort of like in the early seventies?