Top three courses that solidified my ability to think like a programmer:
1. Logic
2. Data structures and algorithms
3. Discrete Math
From there, you are right on that python is a good language to learn first. Also w3schools.com is a helpful place to learn enough to get by in any web languages you would likely encounter. I have found that you will be expected to know some variant of C, so probably that.
That's really it, from a 30yr old $100k/yr female software engineer's standpoint.