Inside the powerful partnership between Black Girls Code and Spelman College—and the future it’s helping build.

By Tiffany James

(Black PR Wire) There’s something powerful about returning to a place that believes in you. That’s what made the first week of Black Girls Code’s 2025 Summer Camp in Atlanta feel so special. For the second year in a row, HBCU Spelman College welcomed BGC learners onto its historic campus—not only to code, build, and explore—but to belong.

From June 23 to 27, more than 50 girls ages 10-16 gathered to explore the theme of AI for Social Good, learning JavaScript fundamentals with p5.js, diving into AI ethics and bias, and using emerging technologies like prompt engineering, video sensing, and generative AI to bring passion-fueled projects to life. By the end of the week, they had built tools for change: from mental wellness apps and cultural archives to wearable affirmations and environmental tech solutions. And they did it all within the walls of Spelman.

For Dr. Jerry Volcy, Co-Director of Spelman’s Innovation Lab, this partnership is deeply personal. A former engineer who spent 19 years in the tech industry before joining Spelman’s faculty, Dr. Volcy has seen firsthand the lack of Black women in tech spaces—and the structural barriers that keep them out.

“In nearly 20 years working in the industry, I can think of maybe two Black people that I saw, maybe two women, and zero Black women,” Dr. Volcy says. That's how few the numbers are. Now you hear about the lack of representation in the technology fields…but when you live it, you're like: Whoa! This is really bad—somebody needs to do something.”

When Spelman was first approached by BGC, Volcy immediately volunteered to help facilitate the initial BGC x Spelman partnership in 2023. Now he serves as the administrative lead sustaining and nurturing the partnership. This year, Spelman granted BGC learners even greater access to campus: workshops were held in the Albro-Falconer-Manley Science Center’s computer labs, final presentations took place in the Cosby Auditorium. Also, students received a behind-the-scenes tour of the Innovation Lab located inside the brand-new Mary Schmidt Campbell Center for Innovation & the Arts, a sprawling 82,500-square-foot interdisciplinary makerspace, which officially opened in April.

“This [partnership] aligns very much with the mission of the Lab, which has to do with getting our students to leverage technologies to advance their standing in whatever their discipline happens to be.” Dr. Volcy says. “It doesn't make any sense to me that there'd be an organization called Black Girls Code, and their premier partner would not be Spelman College.”

During the Innovation Lab tour, campers were wide-eyed as they encountered projects created by Spelman students, such as a tech-powered thunderstorm-inspired dress, 3D printed prototypes, a PlantGPT that could express when it needed care, and a video game inspired by film director Ryan Coogler’s latest movie, “Sinners.” The girls asked smart questions, learned new terms like what an LLM (Large Language Model) is, and left with a vision of what was possible because they could see it.

While Dr. Volcy says he could teach computer science all day and would love to be more involved more directly with the BGC learners, he believes in the power of young girls and women being taught by Black women and near-peer mentors in the form of Spelman students and graduates. “Near-peer mentors understand the journey the students are going through, and they see a version of themselves in front of the classroom,” he says. “It doesn't matter how great a professor you are—young Black women are going to be more effective in terms of being able to motivate the students, inspire them, and deliver something I'll never be able to deliver.”

That’s exactly what made this year’s camp especially meaningful: the campers were split into two cohorts and taught by four Black women—two of which were Spelman graduates. One group was taught by BGC Instructor Alana Burrell, a Spelman alum who studied computer science and engineering. The other group worked closely with BGC Tech Assistant Cadence Patrick, a recent Spelman graduate with a degree in computer science and a minor in interactive media. And Cadence wasn’t new to BGC because she was once a 12-year-old BGC learner herself and has been a part of the BGC community ever since.

“I first got involved with Black Girls Code over ten years ago in Oakland at their annual hackathon,” she says. “It was a weekend for girls to come together, create an app, use code for the first time, and really learn how to take something from an idea to an actual working mockup. My team actually won that hackathon, so I was super invested.”

Cadence shared that she was immediately hooked on STEM and BGC after that. So she continued to attend events, summer camps, and workshops—eventually becoming a student ambassador. Now, Cadence is preparing to take on the role of BGC Instructor during the second Atlanta summer camp session that starts July 21. As a TA, her focus was on guiding campers through AI literacy, creative problem-solving, and building passion projects around topics that mattered to them—whether that meant climate change, self-confidence, or cultural preservation.

“My favorite part about this year's summer camp is definitely just seeing how creative and ambitious all of the campers are—it really feels like looking in a mirror,” Cadence says. “It really just reminds you that the next generation of tech experts and innovators are in very good hands with Black Girls Code.”

At the end of the week, the Cosby Auditorium came alive as campers took the stage to present their projects—some made the audience laugh, others moved them to jump from their seats to grab handmade bracelet giveaways. There were affirmation apps prompted by hand gestures, explorations of electric vs. gas vehicle impact, and video sensing apps that helped bring more awareness to public libraries during the digital age. Their confidence was contagious. Their presence was powerful. And in the words of Dr. Volcy, “This is the magic that I see when students come to Spelman campus, where they see Black women…functioning in positions that they haven't seen or they don't see on a regular basis. It's really impactful.”