How did Girls Code Savannah begin?
• Girls Code Savannah began during a bold experiment in July 2023.
• Could we teach 32 5th‑8th grade girls to code their own websites from a blank screen in only 4 days?
• Pre‐AI. Pre‐vibe coding. Just HTML, CSS, the World Wide Web, and a code editor.
• Could we also help them fall a little bit in love with tech while doing it?
• The answer was yes. And we had no idea of the exceptional joy & growth that would lie ahead.
• Nearly 3 years & an AI revolution later, our “experiment” has expanded to include 5th‑11th grade girls (and boys) and is now one of the most unique youth tech, coding, & AI educational experiences in the country.
Who can attend?
• Girls Code Savannah is designed for young women in 5th‐11th grades within the Savannah Chatham County Public School System, as well as Greater Savannah home school students.
• We also now accept public‐school and home‐school students from surrounding counties — Effingham, Bryan, Liberty, Jasper, & Beaufort.
• We welcome all genders to attend our girl-focused camps and classes. Currently, about 10% of our students are boys.
When are new students accepted?
• We accept a limited number of new students during our Spring & Fall Saturday Sessions.
• Our Summer & Winter Camps are for Returning Students only.
• New students who attend Spring or Fall Saturday Sessions are then eligible to atttend the following Summer or Winter Camp as a Returning Student.
• To learn why our camps are for Returning Students only, see our Camps & Classes FAQs.
How Much Does It Cost?
• Since 2023 Girls Code Savannah Camps & Classes have been 100% FREE.
• Starting in Fall 2026 there will be a small New Student Registration Fee.
• The New Student Registration Fee helps ensure new students are committed to attending and helps us keep our new student waitlist to a minimum.
• There will be no registration fee for Returning Students.
How Is It Funded?
• Over 90% of our direct funding is enthusiastically provided by our Founder & Executive Director. She thinks it's, hands down, the best money she's ever spent.
• Other organizations & individuals also contribute — dollars, used laptops, snacks, & encouraging words — in support of our efforts. Many are mentioned in our feature stories or quoted in our Encouraging Words feature on our Student Websites page.
• And we can't say enough about our valued partnership with the Live Oak Public Library system who generously provides all space for our Girls Code Savannah Camps & Classes.
When/where are camps & classes?
• Our classes are known as Saturday Sessions.
• Our Spring Saturday Sessions are held across Saturdays in March & April.
• Our Fall Saturday Sessions are held across Saturdays in October & November.
• Summer Camp is held in mid‑July.
• Winter Camp is held in late December.
• All Saturday Sessions are held at the Bull Street & SW Chatham branches of the Live Oak Public Library system.
• All Summer & Winter Camps are held at the SW Chatham branch of the Live Oak Public Library system.
What is taught?
• Coding languages including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, & Swift
• Software development tools including Code Editors, & IDEs
• Data concepts & structures including Cloud Computing, Databases, APIs, & JSON
• AI concepts & platforms including Prompt Engineering, LLMs, ChatGPT, Perplexity, & Claude
How do camps & classes differ?
During Spring & Fall Saturday Sessions
• New Students learn coding fundamentals via HTML & CSS and code their own Beginner Website from a blank screen.
• Returning Students continue to build upon the coding, tech, & AI skills they've acquired by coding “byte-sized” tech components & projects.
During Summer & Winter Camps
• Our Returning Students & Instructors collectively form 1 large tech team that is divided into 4 sub-teams
UI/UX Coding,
Data Engineering,
Digital Media,
& Graphic Design
to build & launch a software application or digital product.
• You can find examples of these amazing Summer & Winter Camp tech builds in the feature stories on our Home page.
Why are camps for Returning Students Only?
• We only invite Returning Students to attend our Summer & Winter Camps because we spend that time intensely building small‑scale, high‑impact software applications and digital products.
• We move quickly during camps to achieve a particular tech‑build goal. Therefore, it's important that students in attendance already have some experience coding with us and feel comfortable in our “tech start‑up like” culture.
• See the previous FAQ on how our camps & classes differ to learn more about the “tech team” structure of our Summer & Winter camps.
Do you really pay students during camp?
• Yes Returning Students who attend camp have the opportunity to be paid for contributing the coding, tech, and/or AI skills they've acquired to the tech project we are building.
• Returning Students qualify to be paid at camps by remaining active in camps & classes over time & demonstrating increased tech & coding skills.
• Our camps are intentionally designed to give our students 2 things — beyond increasing their technical skills:
1. A sense of what it's like to be part of a tech team collaborating toward an end goal and
2. A sense of what it feels like to be financially rewarded for their technical skills
• Returning Students who attend camp but are still early in building their coding & technical skills continue to grow their skills while there. In doing so, they increase their eligibility to be paid for their skills at future camps.
Are you currently seeking instructors?
• We are not currently seeking outside instructors at this time.
• Should that change, we will update this answer and provide details on how to apply.
Can students become instructors?
• Yes Students who remain active in our program over time and demonstrate the required knowledge & interpersonal skills to effectively assist in teaching other students have the opportunity to become Assistant Instructors.
• Several of our long-time students have recently become Assistant Instructors. They help our Lead Instructors teach Beginner Students during our Spring & Fall Saturday Sessions.
• Helping Beginner Students learn to code is an excellent way for our more advanced long‑time students to further solidify their tech & coding knowledge.
• Students who become Assistant Instructors while still in our program continue to build their own tech, coding, & AI skill sets outside of the Assistant Instructor role.
are instructors mentored?
• Yes. Girls Code Savannah thrives on a mentorship model of instruction.
• All of our earliest instructors were both taught to code and mentored on how to effectively teach coding to youth by our Executive Director.
• New instructors receive both directed mentorship outside the classroom and real‑time mentorship while assisting current instructors inside the classroom.
• As some of our earliest students now become Assistant Instructors, the same mentorship model of instruction continues.
• Our college-aged instructors also receive personal mentorship around early professional development, mid‑college internships, and early-career goals.
Are instructors paid?
• Yes. All of our instructor positions are paid positions, including those for current students who become Assistant Instructors.
• We do not offer volunteer instructor positions. We believe that both technical skills & teaching skills are extremely valuable and should be compensated.
• We do not agree with the cultural norm where women, in particular, are often being asked to volunteer their hard‑earned skill sets.
• We want both our students & our instructors to know their worth.
Do you offer interships?
• We occassionally offer intership opportunities to current students seeking to develop a tech‑focused project or achieve a particular tech‑focused goal that extends beyond our usual camp or classes timeframe.