More young women than ever before both applied and have been victorious at the 2021 Swift Student Challenge. Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations and Enterprise and Education Marketing made the announcement in an update Tuesday.
Female Swift Student Challenge Winners Among WWDC 2021 Attendees
In total, there are 350 Swift Student Challenge winners from 35 different countries this year. They will all be among the attendees at next week’s all-online WWDC. Commenting on the improved gender balance amongst the entrance and winners, Ms. Prescott said:
Every year, we are inspired by the talent and ingenuity that we see from our Swift Student Challenge applicants. This year, we are incredibly proud that more young women applied and won than ever before, and we are committed to doing everything we can to nurture this progress and reach true gender parity.
What Young Female Developers are Making
Apple also highlighted the story of three of those younger female developers – Gianna Yan, Abinaya Dinesh, and Damilola Awofisayo (all pictured above). Ms. Yan created an app called Feed Fleet, which pairs volunteers with at-risk individuals so they can have essential goods delivered. Ms. Dinesh created and is preparing to launch an app called Gastro at Home, providing information and resources to people with gastrointestinal disorders. She has also started her own non-profit called Impact AI. Ms. Awofisayo runs the hackathon TechHacks for women and non-binary individuals and is working on an American Sign Language app.