Three juniors from Burlingame's Hack Club chapter helped organize a 12-hour coding event for female and non-binary teens on Saturday, Aug. 29, in San Francisco.

Burlingame High School student Sonia Shin, along with Alisa Leung and Isha Chitteti, were among the organizers of Sunbeam SF. The event brought teens from across the Bay Area to the 26th floor of a San Francisco skyscraper to build websites, games and other projects around a single theme: their "Perfect Day."

Hack Club, a global nonprofit network of more than 1,000 high school coding clubs, hosted the event, The Burlingame B first reported.

Shin told The Burlingame B that Sunbeam SF was built around a different idea than a typical hackathon. Rather than competing for prizes, participants focused on learning to code, building their skills and meeting other young people interested in tech.

Shin and Chitteti arrived at 7 a.m. to set up the venue. Participants walked in an hour later.

Leung told The Burlingame B that girls remain underrepresented in tech and that a gap persists between opportunities available to young men and young women in the field. She described the atmosphere at Sunbeam SF as warm and welcoming, saying organizers created a space where participants could feel comfortable learning and growing.

Chitteti told The Burlingame B the event offered a change from predominantly male hackathons.

"This event is mostly kind of just spreading the word that STEM can be fun and is inclusive for everyone," Chitteti said.

The nonprofit Hack Club, founded in 2014, includes more than 100,000 students worldwide as of April 2026.

Upcoming community events: Burlingame families can attend a teen tech workshop on Sept. 16.