Girl power! Summer camp grooms tomorrow techies

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Carmody founded the program in 2002 on the East Coast and beganworking with the Girl Scouts in 2003, when she moved to the WestCoast to work at Science Applications International Corp. Sincethen, the program has logged more than 11,000 hours and reachedmore than 1,000 girls through 33 workshops, seven weekend programs,three weeklong camps and eight field trips to places like MicrosoftCorp.'s Innovation Center in Irvine, Calif., and Cox CommunicationsInc.'s multimedia digital production studio at Petco Park, the homeplaying field of the San Diego Padres.
All of the programs take place in a "girl-friendly" learningenvironment.
"The patterns of learning are different for girls," says Carmody,who is the mother of three sons and a daughter and the leader of aGirl Scout troop.
"Girls are much more social. They like working together in teams.They're also much more impressionable by role models. And theirrole models tend to be older girls, not adults. An older girl isthe best technology mentor for a younger girl," she says.
Technology Goddesses and Girl Scouts made a perfect pairing,especially since one of the Girl Scouts' mottoes is "As you learn,teach someone else." Also, as of sixth grade, every InterestProject, or IP, for which Girl Scouts earn a badge includes acareer component, as well as skills, technology and service components.