NCWIT and Symantec Partner in Engaging Students of All Ages in Computing
(PRWEB) August 12, 2014 -- The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) announced the eighth round of winners of the NCWIT Student Seed Fund, sponsored by the Symantec Corporation. Each winner will receive $1,000 for outreach programs that recruit, retain, and encourage girls and women in computing. Plans include programming workshops, after school programs, student mentoring, peer support, professional training, and other opportunities serving thousands of elementary, middle school, high school, undergraduate, and graduate students.
With Symantec’s support, the NCWIT Student Seed Fund has awarded nearly $65,000 to 90 student-run programs at U.S. universities and colleges of the NCWIT Academic Alliance since 2010.
“Symantec understands having a globally diverse and talented pipeline is critical for our business to succeed, and a program like NCWIT’s Student Seed Fund helps us attract the future talent we need to drive innovation within our organization. We look forward to hearing the success stories of the student-led chapters and congratulate the winners for taking the initiative to encourage more young women to enter the technology workforce. We are proud to be a sponsor of a program that inspires so many young women to strive for excellence,” said Antoine Andrews, Director of Global Diversity and Inclusion at Symantec Corporation.
“These student-run programs combine sound learning theory with active, targeted recruitment – critical practices needed to ensure students know about the creative, relevant aspects of computing courses and careers,” said Lucy Sanders, CEO and Co-founder of NCWIT. “We are grateful for Symantec’s support of these outreach efforts focused on growing the interest of underrepresented groups in computing.”
NCWIT’s Girls in IT: The Facts highlights best practices for computing education reform, whether formal or informal (http://www.ncwit.org/thefactsgirls).
Following are the recipients of the eighth round of the NCWIT Student Seed Fund:
- Bluegrass Community and Technical College will conduct outreach programs to local elementary, middle school, and high school students by participating in the annual Hour of Code held during Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek). Students will be granted access to several computer labs and engage in various computer science activities.
- Brigham Young University will run a programming demonstration geared towards freshman women, exemplifying programming as an activity applicable to both genders.
- Louisiana State University will develop multiple Arduino projects. These projects will introduce middle school and high school students to the various features of an Arduino, which is a microcontroller that can be used to develop interactive objects and perform various physical outputs.
- Mount Holyoke College will initiate a mentorship program, “Big Nerd-Little Nerd,” pairing freshman and sophomore women with junior and senior women who can share their experiences, knowledge, and advice with their younger partners.
- North Dakota State University will add to their existing series of outreach events by incorporating an app development workshop for students.
- Pacific University will host a conference for students interested in computer science careers, focusing on the importance of the inclusion of more women into the field.
- University of California at Davis will hold a C-STEM GIRL camp follow-up meeting and give a robotics demonstration as part of the Girl Scouts STEM Sampler series.
- University of Delaware will mentor K-12 girls and women about bioinformatics and computer science careers.
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will provide content for an after school program, teaching a variety of computer science topics ranging from programming to exploring the concept of pixels.
- Virginia State University will engage students in hands-on activities to establish basic computer science concepts.
Find out more about these winners and past winners at http://www.ncwit.org/studentseedfund.
About Symantec Corporation
Symantec Corporation is an information protection expert that helps people, businesses and governments seeking the freedom to unlock the opportunities technology brings -- anytime, anywhere. Founded in April 1982, Symantec operates one of the largest global data-intelligence networks, and provides leading security, backup and availability solutions for wherever vital information is stored, accessed or shared. The company's more than 20,000 employees reside in more than 50 countries. To learn more go to http://www.symantec.com or connect with Symantec at go.symantec.com/socialmedia.
About NCWIT
The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) is a non-profit community of more than 500 universities, companies, non-profits, and government organizations nationwide working to increase women’s participation in computing and technology. NCWIT equips change leaders with resources for taking action in recruiting, retaining, and advancing women from K–12 and higher education through industry and entrepreneurial careers. Find out more at http://www.ncwit.org.
NCWIT receives significant financial support from Strategic Partners NSF, Microsoft, Bank of America, Google, and Intel, as well as from Investment Partners Avaya, Pfizer, Merck, Turner Broadcasting Systems, Inc., AT&T, Bloomberg, and Hewlett-Packard. View all of NCWIT’s supporters at http://www.ncwit.org/about/supporters.
Twitter: @ncwit
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LinkedIn: http://www.ncwit.org/linkedin
Adriane Bradberry, NCWIT, http://www.ncwit.org, +1 (303) 492-5213, [email protected]
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