Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Sorger.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Emily. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Growing up, there were two things that I was always passionate about: video games and snowboarding! Over the years, I have noticed the lack of females in both of the fields that I am most passionate about. I noticed this because anytime I wanted to go snowboarding, I had a hard time finding girls that wanted to come with me. I always ended up riding with the guys, which is very fun but sometimes, you just need some girl time! I also noticed that with video games and programming I was always playing with my brothers or other male friends that I had. I wanted to be able to share my passions with other females. That’s when I decided it was time to make a change. Since then, I have been encouraging women to take an interest in snowboarding and computer science in a few different ways.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When it comes to encouraging women to get more involved in computer science, it has been a relatively smooth road. However, like every road, it will always have it’s little bumps and challenges. When I started teaching after-school programming classes to high school girls, it was hard to initially recruit them to participate because of the common untrue stereotype that all programmers are uncool ‘nerds’. A majority of high school students are very concerned with the way that others might perceive them, especially when it comes to what activities they wish to participate in. Our goal was to help more girls identify as computer scientists and develop a passion for STEM related fields to get them excited about the things they could create with it. The way I overcame this struggle was to demonstrate to the girls that not all computer scientists are the untrue stereotypes that are commonly heard. I used myself as an example because I am a computer science major with an emphasis in video game programming as well as a sponsored snowboarder and cheerleader at my college. I wanted to prove to them that even if you are in a STEM-related field, it’s completely possible to still go out and do the other things that you love. Being a programmer is awesome and it can help you change the world! Once the girls started attending classes and enjoyed it, they started telling their friends about it which helped our class sizes continue to grow!
When it came to snowboarding, I found it was a little bit more difficult to encourage more of my female friends to try it. At first, I was confused as to why more females don’t snowboard until I realized that it is because they’re afraid of getting hurt or judged by people on the mountain if they fall. To overcome this, I kept using very positive words of encouragement and took time to explain to them that everyone starts from somewhere. It doesn’t matter how good you are, it just matters that you’re trying your best and having fun. You should never let the fear of failure or the thoughts of other people prevent you from branching out and trying something new.
It’s hard to ignore what other people might be thinking about you or saying about you behind your back. Once you learn to not care so much about it is when the real growth and progression happens. I love that in both areas, snowboarding and programming the girls have been hesitant or scared to try it t first, but once they’ve done it they develop a strong hunger to learn more since it really is fun!
What should we know about your business? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I work as a student assistant to one of the department chairs, Dr. Youwen Ouyang, at California State University of San Marcos. Working for her allows me to organize a number of programs and events that are related to the STEM field. Twice a year, we hold an event called the San Diego Women’s Hackathon which is held on our campus and funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. It is a 12 hour coding event open to all high school and college females where we present two challenges in the morning provided to us by two non profit organizations and the girls have to come up with a solution to the challenge by either making a game, website, or app to submit before the timer stops in the afternoon! In the end, the girls have to present their topics to a panel of judges and they pick a winner who might possibly be presented with the opportunity to have their creation published by the non-profit! There is no experience necessary because we encourage the girls to come and learn new things throughout the day. We like to show the girls that it’s possible to code for a cause! Since that has shown to be so successful, we created a project called the Extended Hackathon. Instead of hosting a one-day hacking event, we created a weekly after-school club program for high school girls in North County school districts, including San Marcos, Vista, and Oceanside, called Code Queens. There is no experience necessary to join the club as we teach the girls how to do everything from the basics to creating a finished game. Our goal is to empower every participant and help them pursue a future career in computer science. For the first 6 weeks of this 12 week after school club, we teach the girls how to code a variety of different games. Then, for the remainder of the 6 weeks, they pick one of the challenges we present from two non-profit organizations and create a game based on the challenge that they choose. At the end of the 12 weeks, we host a showcase in which we bring all of the participating high schools together so that they can each present their project to a panel of judges as well as friends and family! This program shows girls that it is possible to code for a cause and have fun doing it. We teach them that programming can be used in a wide variety of fields from medicine to fashion. We are proud that we have the opportunity to show girls that programmers are nothing like the stereotypes. We love being able to show the young women that they can excel in a male-dominated field and still participate in the hobbies that they love.
When it comes to snowboarding, I have started teaching friends. family, cheer teammates, classmates, strangers… essentially anyone who wants to learn! I teach girls of all ages as well because I believe that you’re never too young or old to try something new. I love being able to share my passion for snowboarding with other women. Snowboarding is my outlet and the mountain is my happy place! When I hear that a female friend of mine wants to try to snowboard, I immediately offer to take her and teach her how. I do this because I strongly believe that there need to be more females in snowboarding as well as other action sports. When I teach, I listen to what my student for the day wants to learn. I always make sure to set goals at the beginning of the day and work hard to make sure that we achieve those goals together. That way at the end of the day, they develop a sense of “I did this!” and become excited about it. I try to personalize everyone’s lesson specifically to them because I know that everyone learns differently. Someone who is on the mountain for the first time is going to need much different instruction than someone who wants to learn how to do a 360 off a jump! I pride myself in giving females the confidence that is needed to become good at snowboarding and teaching them that it’s okay to fall, nobody is going to judge them for it because everyone fell at one point. I always say that if you’re not falling, you’re not trying hard enough!
What do you feel are the biggest barriers today to female leadership, in your industry or generally?
One of the biggest barriers to female leadership in the computer science industry is because of the fact that there aren’t enough women who are in the field, especially when it comes to video game programming. It’s hard for women to have a voice when a company is primarily male-dominated and they have a feeling that they don’t belong. That is why I not only encourage women at a younger age to become interested in STEM fields but also help them realize that they are good enough to be in that field. Being a female in any programming field can feel very intimidating, but I think that by continuing to support young women it will help them believe that they are really good in what they’re doing that way by the time they are older, they feel extremely confident that they not only have the ability to work in a male-dominated office, but to become a leader in it as well.
Contact Info:
- Email: emilyksorger@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilysorger/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emily.sorger.9
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