AdaCore Partners with Prologin to Support the Girls Can Code! Initiative

AdaCore is proud to announce its new partnership with Prologin, with a specific focus on their impactful Girls Can Code! initiative. This collaboration marks a key milestone in AdaCore’s ongoing commitment to fostering inclusion and diversity within the tech sector.

Founded by students from École Polytechnique and EPITA, Prologin is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting computer science among young people and contributing to gender equality and diversity in this field.

Through free workshops and bootcamps like Girls Can Code!, the organization provides middle and high school girls with hands-on experience in areas such as web development, robotics, and microcontrollers. The program also features dedicated mentorship sessions with female tech professionals, allowing young students to explore career paths and gain real-world insights.

To support these initiatives, AdaCore is contributing in several key areas by donating equipment, calling for volunteers among AdaCorians, and making a financial contribution to fund the Girls Can Code! actions directly.

Ethan Perruzza, Junior Software Engineer at AdaCore, is the treasurer of Prologin and spoke to us about Girls Can Code! and his views on the future of Computer Science.

Girls Can Code! and the Future of Women in Computer Science: Meet Ethan Perruzza from AdaCore

Encouraging more girls into computer science starts long before university, and for Ethan, who recently joined AdaCore's Rust team after an internship, it has become a personal mission. Alongside the day job, Ethan volunteers with Girls Can Code!, a program run by the French association Prologin that introduces girls to programming through free, girls-only events.

From maths teacher to software engineer

Ethan didn't grow up planning a career in software. "When I was young, I wanted to be a maths teacher," Ethan recalls. What came first was curiosity about how things work. Programming classes at school turned out to be fun, and small personal projects followed: a simple website and a little app to help decide what to study each evening.

What keeps Ethan hooked on the profession is problem-solving. "You're faced with problems, and you have absolutely no idea how you're going to fix them," Ethan explains. "Then you go searching for the solution." Ethan also values the variety, from deep technical work to explaining ideas to colleagues in marketing or finance. It is a useful reminder that engineering is far from a solitary job spent silently writing code.

Two events a year became twelve

Ethan's involvement with Girls Can Code! began a little over three years ago, when a flatmate, Mathéo Rome, who is now also his colleague, kept suggesting it. Ethan was reluctant until a volunteer was urgently needed for an event during exam season. Saying yes meant a 15-hour night train from Strasbourg to Toulouse. "I said I wouldn't do more than two events that year," Ethan says. "I did twelve." Before long, Ethan was helping to organize activities locally, too.

The motivation was to see the impact firsthand. Girls Can Code! has been running since 2014, and some of the people now inside the organization chose to study computer science because of it.

Why representation in tech matters

For Ethan, the biggest barrier is not ability but belief. "If you don't have people around you representing what you want to become, you think it's not possible to become it," Ethan says.

History plays a part, too. Ethan points to pioneers such as Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, Margaret Hamilton, and the six women who programmed ENIAC. Early programming was often seen as women's work, and Ethan believes perceptions shifted as the field gained status and financial reward. Ethan also offers a simple test: try naming a man doing great work in computing today, then try naming a woman. For many people, the second is noticeably harder.

Creating space for girls to succeed

Girls Can Code! events are deliberately girls-only, a choice Ethan says is informed by research on learning environments. Volunteers make clear from the start that they are not teachers and nobody is being graded. As the girls relax, the questions begin, and when a concept clicks, "they have sparkles in their eyes." Being in a room with around 30 others who are all succeeding also shows them they are not alone.

Ethan's own experience of the workplace has been positive, and that is part of the message: there are plenty of places where women in tech can feel valued.

Advice for the next generation

For educators, Ethan recommends learning about bias from experts, such as French researcher Isabelle Collet, whose work focuses on gender in computer science. For young people, the message is simple: "You can do whatever you want. Everything is doable. You just have to work a bit for it."

Ethan is optimistic that change is coming, even if it will take time. As Ethan puts it, "everyone has to contribute to it."

In 2026, AdaCore became a supporter of Girls Can Code! And we are looking forward to seeing how the program progresses through the remainder of 2026 and into 2027.