Girls Who Code: DTCC Escape Room Event

Context

Girls Who Code is a company who uplifts girls in STEM, and right now, I am in their Pathways Program. Every week, they host online events with the company’s partners. This week, I attended their event with Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) to do a computer science themed escape room!

How it works

We are all in a zoom call, and split into breakout rooms. From there, the students will tell the volunteers where to click on the screen. The students are to solve computer science based problems in order to complete the escape room.

Notes

First we got an intro to some comp. sci. basics:

• ASCII (binary, decimal, hexadecimal)
• varaibles, while loops, if conditionals
• arithmetic operators (==, !=, –, +-, %)
  
  

We then went into breakout rooms.



The escape room itself was themed around the Oval Office.

• first puzzle was based on the fibonacci sequence
• second puzzle was based on binary
• third puzzle was if conditionals
  
  

We finished the puzzle pretty fast as a team.



After that, the GWC students asked the DTCC volunteers some questions.

• “Favorite part of your job?”: Working from home, working on projects, solving puzzles
• some of the volunteers got in via an internship
• “Exploration Development Growth” Program, for when you get out of college
• a lot of promotion toward the internships, both are paid and solid opportunities
  
  

Thank you to these volunteers from my breakout room:

• Stephanie Clopeck & Lecia Cook - Had a lot of good advice on career paths, and internships!
• Akiko Green - (from GWC, not DTCC) But incredibly supportive
• John Wu & David Camara - Ran the puzzle and kept up positive energy through the event
  
  Thank you Elisa Rexinger for running the main room and checking in on all the breakout rooms, and being very helpful with education and career based advice!
  
  This was another wonderful opportunity I was incredibly fortunate to be able to attend. Thank you Girls Who Code!