MTA partners with school district on Girls Who Code program

PALMER — Matanuska Telephone Association partnered with the Mat-Su Borough School District as their official technology partner for the Girls Who Code Camp, where 65 MSBSD students took part in coding activities at the MSBSD District Office building last week.

“Through MTA and the MTA Foundation, we’ve strived to create communities full of technology literacy, with an emphasis on instilling the necessary skills and knowledge that young people can use to grow into our next tech and business leaders,” said MTA COO Wanda Tankersley. “With college-aged alumni of Girls Who Code declaring majors in computer science and related fields at 15 times the U.S. average, this is a partnership that will have a lasting impact on the students in the Mat-Su Borough, and it’s one that we hope to expand in years to come.”

Tankersly served as the keynote speaker at the Girls Who Code camp, which is an international nonprofit organization attempting to close the gender gap in technology by equipping young women with computing skills. Since the launch in 2012, Girls Who Code has reached 500 million people and 300,000 girls through in-person programming.

The camp ran from Tuesday through Thursday and also provided an opportunity for a women-led panel of leaders from MTA to share their career experiences. On Thursday, participants traveled to the MTA location at The Shoppes at Sun Mountain to learn about technologically advanced equipment. MTA contributed $3,000 to the camp and announced earlier this year that eligible district families would have access to reduced-cost internet.