ST. LOUIS—Karlie Kloss, a St. Louis born supermodel, was back in her hometown to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Kode with Klossy, which begins in June.
Young women ages 13 to 18 may freely register for the Kode with Klossy program which will be in-person here in St. Louis next month or attend a following online event.
“Creating early access and exposure to how code works, what it does and what you can build with it and Kode with Klossy really is that entry point,” said Karlie Kloss, founder of Kode with Klossy. “This work is is so important to me because there is underrepresentation in not just tech but Stem broadly.”
Kloss has always loved math and science but became fascinated with coding after meeting tech founders.
“When I was in my early 20s, I started meeting all these incredible founders who were creating tech companies, and one single person could build $1 billion enterprise and transform an entire industry and to me, that was so fascinating, this sort of entrepreneurial opportunity and creative opportunity of how you could problem solve with code.”
Kloss took a coding class and followed that up with a program that brings in educators from the tech world to teach young women how to code.
She wants to improve woman representation in the male dominant STEM industry especially as AI technology continues advancing.
“For me, the people behind that technology are so critical. We need to have representation of genders, of ages of all aspects of lived experience, informing what that technology looks like.”
Kloss said of the 11,000 to have gone through her camp 70% go onto major in computer scientist at the collegiate level.
Last week, a girl named Amy graduated from Washington University with a degree in computer science. Of the high-tech jobs, only 22% are women and less than 1% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women of color, according to Kode with Klossy.
The coding camp program says that 82% of their scholars identify as people of color and 40% qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Commemorating the 10-year anniversary, Kode With Klossy launched kwk10.com. The website is a digital hub that highlights hundreds of stories from alum.
