San Ramon Teen Starts Nonprofit To Empower Tech's Girls And Women

SAN RAMON, CA — Megan Jacob, a Dougherty Valley High School student, said she's long had a love for technology and engineering. But time and time again, at hackathons, engineering fix-it clinics or robotics meets, she noticed few women and girls were among the crowd.

Thus Jacob's nonprofit, Tech Girls United, was born last summer. Jacob said in an email that she hopes to educate and empower women in tech. So far, she's reached more than 2,200 girls and women in 30 states and 45 countries.

Tech Girls United kicked off with a data science boot camp that drew 100 girls across the world to learn the basics and put those lessons into use with a final project.

The nonprofit now offers networking coffee chats, monthly workshops on a slew of topics including user interface design, information sciences, empathetic technology, and this summer offered a two-day tech conference for an international audience, Jacobs said. About 150 members participate in a Slack messaging community that offer girls the chance to network with one another.

Jacob has yet to graduate high school, but she already boasts a lengthy resume that would make many envious.

When she's not fostering a community for girls and women in tech, you might find Jacob busy with her duties as her school's California Scholarship Federation president or president of nonprofit GAITEway, which serves girls in AI and tech education. Or perhaps she's wrapped up competing in national competitions for her school's extended reality education club and serving as lead on her robotics team.

She's garnered a number of awards, including the Gold Presidential Volunteer Service award and Society of Women Engineers STEM in Action award.

Learn more about her work with Tech Girls United at her website.