A K–12 digital equity initiative, founded at 18.
Age of Advocacy started as a high school project with one question: what would it take for students who rarely see themselves in tech to use computer science for the causes they care about? It grew into a research intensive, and then into a piloted program for middle school girls at Sophia Academy in Providence.
- Organization
- Age of Advocacy, Providence, RI
- Role
- Founder & Facilitator
- Dates
- March 2019 to present
- Partners
- Sophia Academy; Boston University (directed study)
- Skills
- Curriculum design, K–12 instruction, participatory research, digital equity, facilitation.
- Tools
- HTML, CSS, GitHub, CodeSandbox
Gaps in who enters computing start long before college. Many middle school girls of color only meet technology through occasional after-school clubs or one-day workshops, with no structured path from curiosity to confidence.
Sophia Academy, a tuition-free middle school for girls in Providence, already taught advocacy through a two-year social justice curriculum, but it had no foundational computer science course for every student. That made it the right place to ask how coding and advocacy could be taught together.
Founder, curriculum designer, and instructor, returning to Sophia Academy as an alumna and mentor.
What I Did- 2019
Started Age of Advocacy as a high school project focused on tech literacy, equity, and student voice.
- 2021
Piloted the model as an introductory research intensive, with student cohorts presenting their findings at public forums and conferences.
- Spring 2023
Brought the program to Sophia Academy as a directed study through Boston University: six 90-minute, in-person, after-school sessions for seventh and eighth graders.
- Curriculum
Started with "programming is problem solving for people": students wrote a step-by-step algorithm for making a sandwich, mapped the algorithm behind posting a TikTok, and connected programming to their dream careers.
- Build
Moved into HTML and CSS, where each student designed and coded her own personal website, set up a GitHub account, and published her code in CodeSandbox.
- Research
Used entry and exit tickets, observation, and conversations with students and teachers to learn what helps girls stay curious about computer science.
- Every student who finished the program left with a coded personal website and a GitHub account of her own.
- Key finding: students engage most in low-stakes, grade-free spaces built around what already brings them joy, like TikTok and their own hobbies, rather than lessons that are always framed as "social justice."
- Trusted relationships mattered. Teaching as a Sophia alumna and mentor made it easier for students to take risks, ask questions, and make mistakes.
- Lessons for the next version: get students into a real coding environment sooner, add more sessions, and design for remote delivery.
- The pilot became groundwork for the Tech Socialization framework, and Age of Advocacy is now being relaunched as volunteer community work, including free workshops.
Let’s talk about your program.
Whether you’re rebuilding a curriculum, launching a new initiative, or scaling an existing program, I’d love to hear what you’re working on.