Symantec Grants Help College Students Recruit and Retain Women in Technology
Boulder, Colo. (PRWEB) July 16, 2013 -- The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and Symantec are awarding $10,500 in seed funding to 14 student-run projects that work to increase the numbers of women studying computer science and information technology. Since 2010, the NCWIT Student Seed Fund, sponsored by Symantec, has distributed $43,250 in funding to 70 student-run projects at universities and colleges nationwide.
The winners of round six of the NCWIT Student Seed Fund will receive $750 each for projects that recruit, retain, and encourage girls and women in technology and computing. Student Seed Fund projects 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.
"Symantec is proud to support programs that help create an environment that attracts and retains a diverse technical pipeline of top talent,” said Norma Olmos, Senior Director of Global Diversity. “We recognize the business advantages of a diverse workforce and believe that women in tech play an integral role in that success."
"We know that support at the college level is essential in encouraging more young women to enter the technology workforce," said Lucy Sanders, CEO of NCWIT. "We’re proud to partner with Symantec on an initiative that sponsors both women in computing and the institutions that support them."
Following are the recipients of the NCWIT Student Seed Fund awards:
• Boston University will use its funds to sponsor an orientation and “lecture series” for its Women in Computer Science group.
• Columbia University will apply its seed funding toward its Women in Computer Science mentoring program.
• Cornell University plans to build out its mentoring and networking support for current students and alumnae.
• Georgia Gwinnett College will support events for a Women in IT community on campus.
• Indiana University will launch its “WESIT” (Women Empowered to Succeed in Technology) student group.
• Livingstone College plans to launch a “FiT” (Females in Technology) student group to do outreach events and raise awareness.
• Oregon State University will partner with the Corvalis Boys and Girls Club Teen Center to teach weekly, hands-on computing workshops.
• Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College will expand its Building Future Experiences Club to train high school women in doing technology outreach.
• The College of New Jersey Women in Computer Science group plans to create a web app for students to buy/sell/trade used textbooks.
• Tulane University Women in Technology plans to expand its technical workshop series.
• University of South Alabama will use its funds to grow its on-campus ACM-W chapter.
• University of Texas at Dallas Society of Women Engineers chapter will host a two-day camp for high school girls to teach programming and robotics.
• Villanova University will hold a workshop for undeclared female students to promote computing and debunk stereotypes.
• Virginia State University will use the Computer Science Unplugged curriculum to teach outreach workshops to K-12 students.
About NCWIT
The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) is a non-profit community of more than 450 universities, companies, non-profits, and government organizations nationwide working to increase women’s participation in computing and technology. NCWIT helps organizations more effectively recruit, retain, and advance girls and women in K-12 through college education, and from academic to corporate and startup careers. Find out more at http://www.ncwit.org.
About Symantec
Symantec protects the world’s information, and is a global leader in security, backup and availability solutions. Its innovative products and services protect people and information in any environment – from the smallest mobile device, to the enterprise data center, to cloud-based systems. Symantec’s world-renowned expertise in protecting data, identities and interactions gives our customers confidence in a connected world. More information is available at http://www.symantec.com or by connecting with Symantec at: http://go.symantec.com/socialmedia.
Discover the many reasons to choose a career at Symantec when you visit: http://www.symantec.com/careers
Jenny Slade, NCWIT, (303) 735-6600, [email protected]
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