The NCWIT Student Seed Fund, sponsored by Symantec, has awarded $41,750 to 68 student-run programs with funds to recruit, retain, and support women in computing. These groups have provided outreach, mentoring, peer support, training, and professional development opportunities to more than 1,750 elementary middle-school, high-school, undergraduate, and graduate students. We thank Symantec for its support for the Student Seed Fund.

The NCWIT Academic Alliance has partnered with Symantec to offer the NCWIT Student Seed Fund, a $1,000 award given to student-run programs and initiatives that promote increased participation of women in computing and IT programs. The award is available to student organizations residing in an institution that is a US university and a member of the NCWIT Academic Alliance; free membership in the Academic Alliance can be obtained by having a faculty member complete this Membership Request Form. The award is given to organizations whose initiatives align with NCWIT's mission by proposing activities, events, or other programs that will recruit, retain, and support women in technology- and computing-related majors. (An institution can receive only one award per campus institution per year.)

We are pleased to announce the Call for Proposals for Round 7 of the Symantec Student Seed Fund. To apply, simply submit your online applications to: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/StudentSeedFundR7, as well as a letter of support to studentseedfund@gmail.com. Applications and letters of support are due on October 20th, 2013, by midnight MT. Winners will be notified by November 30th, 2013. For more information about the Call for Proposals for Round 7, please view our Call for Proposals Document.  Feel free to share our Promotion Card with student organizations.

For more information about the NCWIT Academic Alliance and the Seed Fund Award program, contact the Academic Alliance Program Manager, Kim Kalahar. You can also download a copy of our Frequently Asked Questions.

Round 6 Winners:

• Boston University will organize a resume/interview workshop, 3 “Lecture Series” events involving professors and outside speakers, and a Bowling “Bonding/Orientation” event for new members.
• Columbia University will host a mentorship program to support the CS community and share the knowledge and experience that WICS members have to offer to their peers.
• Cornell University will host a mentorship program, organize a talk with Cornell alumna, and conduct a student panel, as well as a faculty talk and mingling event to help women build their network.
• Georgia Gwinnett College will implement a Women in IT community within the campus focusing primarily on women who are majoring, minoring, or interested in the field of Information Technology.
• Indiana University will create awareness on campus about CEWIT and WESIT by hosting an “Amazing Race” type competition for IU students around the fall launch of the center.
• Livingstone College will establish an annual event at the Livingstone College on the Green event to recruit participation and majors into FiT and help women become CIS majors.
• Oregon State University will provide a middle school and a high school weekly hands-on electronics activities at the Corvallis Boys and Girls Club Teen Center using kits they prepare.
• Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College will involve the local students, through an Expanding Your Horizons program in which local middle school girls are taught the basics of technology.
• The College of New Jersey will be developing a book trading/selling web application to enable college students to decrease the exorbitant expenses typically incurred by textbooks.
• The University of Texas at Dallas will host the first Geeky Girls Summer Camp, a two day camp for girl entering their junior year of high school to become exposed to computer programming.
• Tulane University will promote and maintain technology-related workshops throughout the academic year focusing on topics such as Graphic Design, SPSS, Wikipedia editing, Drupal and Wordpress.
• University of South Alabama will host the 1^st Annual ACM-W Back to School luncheon to bring together female faculty members, industry partners, alumni, and students for networking.
• Villanova University will hold a “Women in Technology” workshop for undeclared science females to explain what computer scientists do and show them CS women are not the stereotypical “geeks.”
• Virginia State University will have an all day workshop to have some CS Unplugged activities, such as Error Detection: Card Flip Magic, Binary Numbers: Count the Dots, and chalk drawings.

See previous winners here.

Thank you to Symantec for sponsoring this award.