Six Rutherford County students were among 13 who graduated from Girls Who Code program in December.

Those students are Malena Arhagba (Wilson Elementary), Zoe Barrett (Buchanan Elementary), A'niya Hassan (Rockvale Middle), Vennita Hatcher (Whitworth-Buchanan Middle), Anne-Marie Love (Riverdale High) and Zorrie Smith (Siegel Middle).

Throughout the program, girls ages 8-16 completed a Computer Science Impact Project, where they used computer science to solve an issue relevant to their classroom and community. The girls completed a project that focused on the environment, how the environment is impacted by pollution and waste, and what can be done about it. 

To complete the project, club members met weekly at the Technology Engagement Center to learn core computer science concepts — such as loops, variables, conditionals and functions — that form the basis for all computer programming languages.

The program is offered by OKAS Inc., a youth-based nonprofit organization, in partnership with Girls Who Code, which is a national nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in technology and change the image of what a programmer looks like and does.