Written by volunteer writer Amy Freeman

Sometimes, organizing and leading a TechGirlz workshop is a real team effort. On November 1, Optum hosted their second TechGirlz event at its Raleigh office. The workshop was “Introduction to JavaScript” and was led by Kristen Slappey.

Kristen wasn’t alone in working with the middle-school-aged girls who attended the TechShop. She had support from a team of volunteers, made up of other employees from Optum. The volunteer team included Tarequl Alam, Keila Calderon Chaves, Jamal Cromity, Caitlin Doyle, Tanya Hughley, and Janet Saldana.

As the technology arm of UnitedHealth Group, it makes perfect sense for Optum to host TechGirlz workshops. The organization regularly uses languages such as JavaScript to make their websites interactive and improve user experience.

During the workshop, the girls were excited to see how coding can be used in real life and got a taste of how easily they could create their own programs. The girls in the workshop seemed to really grasp the importance of learning to code.

Writing about the workshop in a post on LinkedIn, volunteer Jamal Cromity stated that

“There is something truly special about watching women helping girls learn code. This is how employees of Optum give back to the community and are helping shape young minds of the future.”

Cromity called out the work of Kristen Slappey, saying that she did an “awesome” job leading the workshop, and the contributions of Laura Hernandez, who organized the event. He also thanked TechGirlz Charitable Foundation for partnering with Optum once again.

At the end of the day, the team at Optum hope that the workshop sparked curiosity in the girls who attended and that the participants are inspired to learn more about the IT world. The organization looks forward to working with TechGirlz and hosting more workshops in the future.