Megan Smith Quotes

This is … a time when there is increasingly no such thing as a high-wage, middle-skilled job — the thing that sustained the middle class in the last generation. Now there is only a high-wage, high-skilled job. Every middle-class job today is being pulled up, out or down faster than ever. That is, it either requires more skill or can be done by more people around the world or is being buried — made obsolete — faster than ever

There are not enough good jobs for the skill levels we have.

There are several million job vacancies on the country right now, but they don’t line up with skills [of the unemployed.]

Unless we make computer science a priority, we risk making gender, class, and racial disparities worse as jobs flow to those with a computer science background.

Computer games tend to be boys' games, warlike games with more violence. We have not spent enough time thinking through how to encourage more girls to be involved in computing before coming to college so they can see a possible career in information technology.

Therefore, you are not training young people for the world of today and the world of tomorrow unless you are doing proven technology training. That is one of the reasons I'm so concerned.

When I was a teenager, I was a huge computer nerd. I went to computer programming camp. I went to space camp.

Technology is a nerdy field. That's why I called myself a 'geek.' It requires a lot of training and encouragement at a very young age.

The extreme sophistication of modern technology - wonderful though its benefits are - is, ironically, an impediment to engaging young people with basics: with learning how things work.

The workers and professionals of the world will soon be divided into two distinct groups. Those who will control computers and those who will be controlled by computers. It would be best for you to be in the former group.

Fewer than 13 percent of high school students will continue to study math and science in college—usually the most well-prepared and persistent students who often come from families where encouragement and enrichment is fundamental

We have a problem in Africa with our education system. It is a relic from the past. The education system was meant to create clerks to help the administrative role of the colonial power. So the emphasis was on neat handwriting and how to write good reports and things like that, and if you move further, then you study Shakespeare and Molière. But we don’t have enough engineers and scientists. Two percent of African university graduates study agriculture, when 70 percent of our people are living off the land. Obviously, we have a problem.

As more girls get basic schooling, larger numbers will move up the educational ladder - some to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. That's important because workplaces around the world, especially in many developing and emerging-market countries, are becoming more automated, favouring workers with technical skills.

If you talk about STEM education, the best way to introduce anyone to STEM or get their curiosity going on, it's Minecraft.

Widening the talent pipeline sufficiently will require a generational commitment to teaching math and science, providing technical training, and mentoring young people of all backgrounds so they understand the full range of possibilities that a career in technology affords.

Learning to code at a young age opened my eyes to the incredibly exciting world of technology and entrepreneurship. Our youth deserve the opportunity to learn the skills that will enable them to succeed in our connected world.

I want to encourage more young women to get involved in coding, because it's important for them to be able to help shape the future, and coding is the future.

The Startup Act should give all Americans, not just immigrants, a better shot at being tomorrow's engineers and entrepreneurs. And that opportunity could begin at a young age with education in computer programming.

Jobs in technology have the rapidest rate of growth. The need for computer science is so incredibly large, and it's important that girls of all colors have the opportunity to move into that field.

The whole thought of a career with computers - given that hardly anybody even knew what they were - it wasn't even a concept.

The big problem is that a lot of Americans, whether they are underrepresented minorities or from rural areas, do not know about career opportunities in the tech industry because they may not have had role models who are part of this field or learned about STEM in school.

I understand the challenge with student loans. But what about the labor force, the enlisted men and women, so to speak, of ships. Those who work with their hands and their minds. We need to do what we do in the military, is we train and retrain.

For me, growing up coding and computers and video games wasn't something that was cool, but it was something that I was always passionate about. I never let the fact that that wasn't something that was cool take me away from it.

I was full of pride when President Obama talked about coding in his last State of the Union address. I was proud when Chicago recently made computer science mandatory as a requirement for graduation. To see this elevate to the level of a bigger conversation is progress.

When I started Black Girls Code in 2011, there weren't any programs that had a foundation in communities of color to teach our kids about technology.