Sewickley Academy senior develops coding program to encourage girls to pursue STEM
Sewickley Academy senior Brooke Busatto is the only girl in her advanced robotics class.
But she’s on a STEM mission to change that statistic for female students following in her footsteps as she advocates to encourage girls to embrace careers involving coding, technology and science-related fields of study.
“At first when I joined, I was a little apprehensive,” said Busatto of enrolling in a male-dominated course. “I felt welcomed by the guys, but it was a little hard and I did try and recruit girlfriends to the class, but they were like, “No, not interested.’ ”
Undeterred, Busatto is part of Woahbots, the team name for the robotics class.
As part of her senior project, a requirement for graduation, Busatto developed SHEcodes! — a six-week lunchtime coding course for eighth grade girls that meets on Wednesdays on campus.
The course will conclude May 14, and Brooke will present her project to her senior peers and faculty during an open house senior project event.
“I chose this because when I was in seventh grade, I joined a group called Steel City Codes hosted by high school students,” Busatto said. “It was during covid and online, but that sparked my interest in coding and I loved it.”
SHEcodes! enrolls 20 eighth graders, and Brooke plans and teaches the nongraded course.
The project involves coding for girls, and the feedback has been positive.
“It’s like the complicated text that goes into a computer for what we see,” Busatto said of coding. “The first thing I was proud of when I started the class was that I had more girls come by and join on the second week, and I actually maxed out the class. The students told me it’s fun.”
“At first, I was worried about enrollment, but then 20 girls signed up and the class is full,” Busatto said.
Busatto, 18, was born in Hilton Head, S.C., and moved to Edgeworth when she was 3.
She is a second-generation Sewickley Academy student.
Her father, Brad, graduated from Sewickley Academy as did her sister.
Busatto said she has seen an uptick in schools offering more STEM and coding-related courses to girls.
Sewickley Academy now requires middle-schoolers to complete a computer science course.
“I did not have that in middle school, and I really wanted to show middle school girls that coding can be fun. I feel like computer science can be really intimidating. It can be scary, and it’s developing every day and always evolving.”
Charlotte Coleman is an eighth grader at Sewickley Academy.
“I felt like it would help me learn some coding for going into the senior school, and Brooke is someone I look up to,” Coleman said of her decision to attend SHEcodes!
Eighth grader Angelina Rippole said she is enjoying the coding course and is proud of Busatto’s creative senior project.
“It’s inspiring to see a woman who codes and pursuing what she loves,” Rippole said.
When not coding, Busatto enjoys playing lacrosse, tennis, babysitting, hanging out with her two cats, Winston and Rosie, volunteering at Northway Sewickley Valley Church and traveling, with Spain ranking high as one of her favorite trips.
She plans to study business and computer science at Wake Forest University in the fall.
Joyce Hanz is a native of Charleston, S.C. and is a features reporter covering the Pittsburgh region. She majored in media arts and graduated from the University of South Carolina. She can be reached at jhanz@triblive.com
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