Upon arriving on the first day of the competition, the students got to work devising a solution to the open prompt: Breaking Barriers. As students at a girls’ school, Nora and Jade are passionate about creating space for women and girls, and breaking barriers for women in the workplace is something they care about deeply. “In the status quo, girls are often told that their dreams are unreachable and unrealistic. These words are reinforced by a lack of support and opportunities from society that are necessary to fulfill their goals,” said Nora and Jade while introducing their project. “In finance, women only made up 30% of entry-level positions in 2022. In STEM, women made up 27% of the workforce in 2019.” In continuing their research, Nora and Jade found that barriers were even more evident when it comes to race, sexual orientation and class. 

Over the next three days, Nora and Jade used their knowledge of HTML and CSS to create a women-only social media networking site called Sis-ciety. “To us, one thing remains clear: we need to develop a far-reaching, accessible net for women to step into the careers they deserve,” they said. On this free-to-use site, aspiring students can talk to and learn from women in the workforce and receive one-on-one mentorship and guidance with someone in their preferred field, located near their community.

Nora and Jade finished the competition with an honourable mention. After completing the challenge, the team was already thinking about how to improve their project—adding AI filter systems, chat rooms and forum capabilities, as well as accessibility features to ensure Sis-ciety will be available for use by all.

Branksome Hall congratulates Nora and Jade on completing an incredible project and participating in this year’s Blues Hackathon! Learn more about their project here.