Community and Visibility

Ed Lazowska

Ed Lazowska, Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering

Strategies: 

Community and Visibility

Partner with existing groups (company affinity groups, supervisory groups, local community organizations) to offer opportunities that women weren't aware of and to recruit and advance women into computing fields. This may involve efforts to change the image of computing or improving how the organization celebrates women's technical contributions and accomplishments.

In-Reach

In-reach means looking more closely at the women already on campus and those already working in your company to recruit from the inside. Women already connected to your organization can be motivated to study CS / IT majors or take on variety of technical corporate jobs when they receive direct motivation to do so.

Targeting Influencers

Faculty, admissions staff, counselors, parents, mentors, managers, and peers are all powerful influencers of women's decisions to enter or stay in a technical career. Influencing the influencers provides an inflection point for causing them to consider their own biases or perceptions, and helping them encourage more women to pursue technical careers.

Organization Name: 
University of Washington
Organization URL: 
http://www.cs.washington.edu/

University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) created a multi-pronged strategy with the goal of adding "net new" women in computing fields. We targeted female freshman honors students with a new course called "Brave New World: Scientific, Economic and Social Impact of CS". We created popular honors sections in our introductory programming courses with the purpose of engaging smart women and getting some of them to add Computer Science & Engineering to their "might be interested in" list of majors. We coordinated our instructors and support staff to ensure consistent, encouraging communication with students (specifically women) in the Intro the Programming class. Emails sent to high achievers suggested that they consider applying for the major; informational "teas" invited women to network with faculty, students, and staff from the department; and a special women's seminar introduced women to the breadth and depth of CSE by visiting local companies, listening to current student panels, seeing research presentations, and talking about their experiences in the courses.

We also are in the early stages of our traveling road show program, in which CSE graduates and undergraduates visit local middle and high schools to show them exciting applications of computer science. The number of women in the University of Washington CSE is about 4% higher now than when we started; since many of our outreach programs target students early in the pipeline, we hope to continue to see our numbers increase over the next few years.

Hear Ed tell the University of Washington Pacesetters story: http://sitwithme.org/your-story/?story=1302.

Adrienne Harrell

Adrienne Harrell, Director of Undergraduate Student Affairs

Strategies: 

Community and Visibility

Partner with existing groups (company affinity groups, supervisory groups, local community organizations) to offer opportunities that women weren't aware of and to recruit and advance women into computing fields. This may involve efforts to change the image of computing or improving how the organization celebrates women's technical contributions and accomplishments.

First Course Experience

Improving the first course can appeal to a broader demographic (not just women) by teaching computing in context and showing how computing skills can be is applied to disciplines such as healthcare, disabilities, or the arts. Such introductory courses introduce computational thinking skills (as opposed to just the mechanics of coding), keep students engaged, and increase retention in the major.

In-Reach

In-reach means looking more closely at the women already on campus and those already working in your company to recruit from the inside. Women already connected to your organization can be motivated to study CS / IT majors or take on variety of technical corporate jobs when they receive direct motivation to do so.

Starting Young

Outreach and programs that target middle and high school girls are important because they engage girls before they lose interest or decide to pursue other fields. Programs such as the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing and Dot Diva provide encouragement, inspiration, and community to young women that can influence career decisions.

Tapping New Pools of Talent

Sometimes it's helpful to look externally for new pools of talent and introduce them to computing fields and careers. This can include offering new majors or creating interdisciplinary majors that allow students to combine computing skills with a variety of fields that interest them, or providing training to current employees that allows them to switch to a technical track.

Organization Name: 
University of California - Santa Cruz
Organization URL: 
http://www.cs.ucsc.edu/

Over the last 18 months, the number of women majoring in computer science at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) has increased by 40%. Faculty and staff at the Jack Baskin School of Engineering (JBSOE) have introduced a number of initiatives to encourage greater participation of women in computing on campus.

We are reaching out to middle school girls with a summer camp called "Girls in Engineering", which focuses computer science and engineering. Through our participation in the Bay Area Affiliate of the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing, we are encouraging high-school-age young women to pursue computing and establishing UCSC as a women-friendly place to study computing. An outreach "road show" is designed to influence more young women to consider computer science as a college option.

Our NSF-funded scholarship program targets financially disadvantaged students, especially women, and includes a unique live-and-learn community and shared curriculum in the first year. We also are reaching out to women already at UCSC through the redesign of an entry-level course and an advertising campaign we call "Project Awesome." Project Awesome is an aggressive "in-reach" program targeting first- and second-year women with brochures mailed to their homes, welcome events on campus, and a website (http://awesome.soe.ucsc.edu) that provides encouragement and incentive to study computing.

Hear Adrienne tell the University of California Santa Cruz Pacesetters story: http://sitwithme.org/your-story/?story=1306.

Dalene King

Dalene King, Senior Diversity & Inclusion Program Manager

Strategies: 

Community and Visibility

Partner with existing groups (company affinity groups, supervisory groups, local community organizations) to offer opportunities that women weren't aware of and to recruit and advance women into computing fields. This may involve efforts to change the image of computing or improving how the organization celebrates women's technical contributions and accomplishments.

In-Reach

In-reach means looking more closely at the women already on campus and those already working in your company to recruit from the inside. Women already connected to your organization can be motivated to study CS / IT majors or take on variety of technical corporate jobs when they receive direct motivation to do so.

Organization Name: 
Microsoft
Organization URL: 
http://careers.microsoft.com/

At Microsoft, we believe a diverse workforce is key to driving continued innovation. Through cultivating an inclusive environment, we strive to capitalize on the ideas and perspectives of our talent to create the most innovative products, best business solutions, and ideal services for our global customers. As part of this commitment, Microsoft embarked on a partnership with the NCWIT to grow the number of women in computing technology in the industry.

Our approach focuses on three internal programs with the goal of increasing our overall representation. The first program supports the movement of college students into the industry through internships starting at the freshman and sophomore level. The second builds upon our current on-boarding programs by connecting new female hires to others in the company who help support their success at Microsoft. The third program centers on creating a global women’s community at Microsoft for women who deliver technical services and support to customers in the field. Over the last year, this third program focused on raising the visibility of the contributions these technical women provide to Microsoft and the industry, ultimately enhancing their own career advancement and showcasing them as role models for others.

Hear Dalene tell the Microsoft Pacesetters story: http://sitwithme.org/your-story/?story=1305.

Jessica Murillo

Jessica Murillo, Software Engineering Director, Systems & Technology Group

Strategies: 

Community and Visibility

Partner with existing groups (company affinity groups, supervisory groups, local community organizations) to offer opportunities that women weren't aware of and to recruit and advance women into computing fields. This may involve efforts to change the image of computing or improving how the organization celebrates women's technical contributions and accomplishments.

Organization Name: 
IBM
Organization URL: 
http://www-03.ibm.com/employment/us/

IBM has a long-standing focus on innovation and we believe diversity is a competitive advantage. At IBM we leverage our differences to create innovations that matter and drive the best results for our clients.

Our Technical Women's Pipeline Program is a career framework and networking community for our technical innovators that support women's growth and advancement. As part of the Technical Women's Pipeline Program IBM assigns each participant a long-term technical role model and an executive sponsor, who actively coach and mentor her to be an innovator. IBM creates a set of targeted activities and learning opportunities tailored to each participant. These include creating an annual actionable development plan with measurable goals, and developing a promotion package to ensure the candidate continues to progress in her career. Participants receive a career roadmap tailored for their specific needs, and have opportunities for visibility and development through temporary assignments, job shadowing, and other experiential learning opportunities. Regular checkpoints between the IBM employee, her coach, her executive sponsor, and her manager keep the team focused on her development and progress.

Hear Jessica tell the IBM Pacesetters story: http://sitwithme.org/your-story/?story=1303.

Gabriela Marcu

Gabriela Marcu, Ph.D. Student, Human Computer Interaction

Strategies: 

Community and Visibility

Partner with existing groups (company affinity groups, supervisory groups, local community organizations) to offer opportunities that women weren't aware of and to recruit and advance women into computing fields. This may involve efforts to change the image of computing or improving how the organization celebrates women's technical contributions and accomplishments.

Organization Name: 
Carnegie Mellon University
Organization URL: 
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/

Carnegie Mellon University has a renowned history for recruiting women to its computer science programs and has achieved its Pacesetters goals in part by working with the strong, visible community of women (Women@SCS) already active in the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science. This year we've seen a growth spurt in enrollment of women in CS majors and a steady demand for our outreach programs.

In response to participating in Pacesetters, Dr. Carol Frieze, Director of Women@SCS, built an advisory team of CMU faculty, headed by the Dean, to review current and future diversity programs. Our approach has been two-fold. First, we have fostered an on-campus community that includes mentoring programs, connects women across all levels and departments, and offers professional development workshops and invited speakers. All of these activities support our retention efforts and sharpen students' professional skills. Second, our outreach programs are helping to spread the word about computing, broaden the image of who can do computing, and engage teachers and students in computational concepts and hands-on activities.

Hear Gabriela tell the Carnegie Mellon University Pacesetters story: http://sitwithme.org/your-story/?story=1299.

Ignatios Vakalis

Ignatios Vakalis, Chair, Department of Computer Science

Strategies: 

Community and Visibility

Partner with existing groups (company affinity groups, supervisory groups, local community organizations) to offer opportunities that women weren't aware of and to recruit and advance women into computing fields. This may involve efforts to change the image of computing or improving how the organization celebrates women's technical contributions and accomplishments.

First Course Experience

Improving the first course can appeal to a broader demographic (not just women) by teaching computing in context and showing how computing skills can be is applied to disciplines such as healthcare, disabilities, or the arts. Such introductory courses introduce computational thinking skills (as opposed to just the mechanics of coding), keep students engaged, and increase retention in the major.

Organization Name: 
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Organization URL: 
https://www.csc.calpoly.edu/

At Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, students in computer science and software engineering expressed interest in learning more technologies in context and application, beginning very early in their major. In 2010 we revised our first-year course selections, so that now students can choose from introductory computing courses such as Game Design, Mobile App Development, Robotics, Music Composition, and Computational Art. These new courses reflect the evolution of computing instruction by giving students choices in their introductory class, teaching "algorithmic thinking," using context to draw students in and keep their interest, and implementing project-based learning in a group environment. Our evaluators are looking at recruitment, retention, and learning outcomes but initial results show that this approach has been especially popular and effective with female students.

Cal Poly also has emphasized opportunities for women in computing to develop visibility for themselves and the field. Our Computer Science Department promotes the women in computing student club, runs a speaker series, and established a mentoring mechanism for female students. The department supports female students attending the annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference, and will be hosting an NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing affiliate for high school girls. Women in computing majors are visiting their former high schools, using NCWIT road show materials to ignite the passion of prospective students.

Hear Ignatios share the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Pacesetters story: http://sitwithme.org/your-story/?story=1294.