Founder of coding school for young women in developing nations to speak at Adrian College
Posted Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Author: Mickey Alvarado
Fereshteh Forough, the founder of a coding school for young women called Code To Inspire (CTI), will be the featured guest in an Adrian College Freligh Speaker Series event at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26 in Downs Hall. The event is free and open to the community.
Forough said CTI empowers young women in developing nations to drive economic and social progress by teaching them how to code, find programming jobs and launch technology ventures.
“From the ruins of a war-ravaged nation and the shattered lives of refugees can come treasure, if we know where to look,” Forough said. “By investing in education, we can bring that treasure out in our students.”
Born the daughter of refugees in Iran, Forough moved to Afghanistan as a teenager with her family. After earning a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree, she taught computer science at Herat University, in Herat Afghanistan. Threats made by those opposed to her efforts to educate women forced her to flee Afghanistan and relocate to New York City in 2012.
Forough launched CTI three years later, based on her firm belief that technology is the key to connecting women to good education and brighter futures. Forough remotely led all aspects of operations and fundraising, while her team in Herat found a safe location with full-time security for the school’s first 50 students.
In the five years since CTI’s founding, support by organizations and individuals committed to the advancement of women in technology has enabled the nonprofit training program to teach 150 young women how to code and build mobile apps. Over 70 percent of graduates have found work.
“Code To Inspire’s success in Herat proves our model can thrive anywhere, and we’ll expand to other cities in Afghanistan and other countries,” Forough said.
Forough and CTI have been recognized for exemplary achievement by Google (Google Rise Award), the United Nations (Named Girl Hero Award), Marie Claire (Young Women’s Honors) and UC Berkeley (CITRIS Athena Awards for Women in Technology).
For more information on the event, contact Adrian College’s Academic Affairs Department at 265.5161, Ext. 3888.
