Clubs at Trinity High School have been an important tradition since Trinity became a public school.  They help students find where they fit in at the school and help them find where they can be accepted. 

 The Girls Who Code club (GWC) is a sisterhood of supportive girls interested in learning how to code. Coding is the process of using a programming language to get a computer to behave how the person in control wants it to act. The GWC programs offer project tutorials, activity sets and self-guided exercises to teach students how to code. There are also different levels in the program for different skill sets. It is a safe and supportive environment of peers and role models where girls can learn to see themselves as computer scientists. They also learn the concepts of loops, variables, conditionals and functions that form the basis of all programming languages. The GWC offers tutorials in six programming languages for students in the club to learn. The languages Scratch, Swift, Python, HTML/CSS, Javascript and p5.js offer a wide arrangement of programming knowledge and cover multiple fields of programming.

“According to data collected by GWC, in 1995 37% of computer scientists were women. Today, it’s only 24%. Trinity’s Girls Who Code plan to change those stats!” says club advisor, Mrs. Hartley.

The Girls Who Code club made its way to Trinity this year after Juniors Rayne and Rylee Elling went to a 2021 summer immersion program offered by GWC. The program offered girls a free and great opportunity to learn to code. The Ellings told Hartley about the program and there was a unanimous decision that it would be a great club to have at Trinity.

“We worked together to start this club to encourage other girls to branch out and try to learn code as well,” says Rylee Elling. 

The club meetings always start with an activity to help the girls connect and get to know each other better. When that is finished, they focus on starting a project for the week or they discuss the future bigger projects. A great part about this club is that no prior knowledge of any sort of computer science is needed. The multiple tutorials offered ensure that girls with any level of programming knowledge have a chance of learning something new. The club’s end goal for this year is to enter into the PA Media and Design Competition, an annual event that highlights Pennsylvania students’ application skills, creativity and knowledge.

The Girls Who Code club meets in room 186 on Mondays and Fridays during homeroom.  The GWC currently has six members, but it is always looking for more! If students are interested in joining the club they should email or talk to Hartley in room 186.