Give us a background of NewtonHACKS and how it all began?

 We started NewtonHACKS out of our passion for programming and to create awareness for the gender gap in the tech industry! The team wanted to create an opportunity for girls and beginner coders that would be welcoming and less competitive. After attending several hackathons in this area as beginners and continually feeling discouraged since we were one of the few beginner teams and girls competing at the event, we knew this could be the reason most girls beco me discouraged from continuing their programming journeys. 

Who are the Founders and what was the inspiration for all of you?

The names and positions of our founders are: 

We are all incoming sophomores at Newton South High School. 

Saakshi Challa - Executive director

Preethika Vemula - Director of finances 

Arshia Verma - Director of technology and planning

Noa Racin - Director of communications 

 Inspiration:

I am super excited for the first session of NewtonHACKS! I hope that this will become a larger organization as the years go by and we can start having in-person hackathons in the future! We are so happy to be bringing a community of young, beginner coders together and creating awareness for the gender gap in the tech world! - Saakshi 

I have seen and experienced the lack of women in my programming class, mathematics class, and science classes. I have also attended numerous hackathons and have seen very few girls. NewtonHACKS is welcoming all students who are working on their skills, are completely new to computer programming, or want something fun to do. - Arshia

When COVID-19 struck, our plans were temporarily put on hold, but then we decided to expand our horizons and host an online hackathon, where we could have anyone who wished to participate join! It's so exciting to have people from all over the globe! - Noa

We hope that through our hackathon students will gain the courage to explore the computer science field. Our goal is to introduce the basic principles of computer science to encourage hackathon participants to pursue these subjects to a higher level.  – Preethika

http://newtonhacks.com/our-team/  

 What will happen on the day of the Hackathon?

The day of the hackathon will allow participants to code and collaborate to create amazing projects! While most of the day will be spent coding, there will also be amazing speakers and small fun activities via zoom throughout the day. In addition to this, we are very excited to announce that NewtonHACKS is having a webinar series on the weekends leading up to the event. There will be 6 ones, each covering a different aspect of programming that will be helpful for participants to learn before the hackathon. For more information or questions email newtonhacks@gmail.com.

 How does one register for this event? 

Registration is 100% free and will be open to any student in 6-12th grade! There is no restriction on gender or location!  Our sponsors our Johnny's Luncheonette, Millifluidica, and RStudio! We thank them profusely!! We are still looking for more sponsors and registration!

|