Targeting Influencers

Scott McCrickard

Scott McCrickard, Associate Professor, School of Computer Science

Strategies: 

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.

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: 
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Organization URL: 
http://www.cs.vt.edu/

Virginia Tech is an NCWIT Pacesetter. In October 2011, I sat to share that we've seen a 56% increase in the number of female high school students who have met with the school and show interest. We send visiting teams of CS faculty, advisors and students to interact with them as mentors and peers, including female role models from our undergraduate population. We also connect with uncommitted first-year College of Engineering students, with a focus on female students, through face-to-face programs in the first-year classes, during pre-freshman summer programs and at our on-campus engineering women’s dorm, Hypatia.

We also created "designer minors" that combine CS with other disciplines (ex. business, math, psych, bioinformatics), drawing on populations with higher female/male ratios than engineering. Our overall goal for Pacesetters will be attained when we double the number of women CS graduates at Virginia Tech from a baseline of our 2009 graduating class. We also have annual goals of visiting between 20-50 high school girls and graduating 10 women with CS minors. Go Hokies!

Hear Scott tell the Virginia Tech Pacesetters story: http://sitwithme.org/your-story/?story=1296.

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.

Tiffany Grady

Tiffany Grady, Assistant Director for Academic Initiatives

Strategies: 

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.

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 Texas - Austin
Organization URL: 
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/

The Department of Computer Science at UT-Austin set a goal to increase the number of women entering the computer science undergraduate program and, through carefully targeted steps, we were able to double the number of new female students in one year.

First, we set up meetings with admissions to let them know our goals for increasing our numbers. Last year, we requested 40 slots for focused recruiting; this year, we doubled the number of women admitted. In addition, we focused efforts to recruit students from our First Bytes camp, as well as undecided students already in the College. Many faculty members pitched in to encourage students taking our Elements program, which is a set of computer science classes targeted toward non-majors, to consider a computer science major. We provided faculty and student mentoring for first-year women, which helped tremendously with retention. We also offer scholarships sponsored by the National Science Foundation to many of our incoming female freshmen, as well as scholarships for winners of the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing. Each of these efforts has impacted our success.

Hear Tiffany tell the University of Texas at Austin Pacesetters story: http://sitwithme.org/your-story/?story=1295.

Maureen Biggers

Maureen Biggers, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Education

Strategies: 

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: 
Indiana University
Organization URL: 
http://www.soic.indiana.edu/computer-science/

Since becoming an NCWIT Pacesetter, the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University doubled the number of female undergraduate majors, from 75 to 150 in 18 months. With strong support from the dean, we did it by using an engaging, research-based systemic change model promoted by NCWIT, and having a clear goal and a comprehensive strategic plan.

Initiatives included faculty focus on best practices in pedagogy, programs to increase student success and retention, understanding our students and using that understanding in targeted marketing initiatives, community development to increase sense of belonging, and leveraging the power of parents and peers. It takes a village and this IU Village is now committed to the challenge of doubling it again!

Hear Maureen tell the Indiana University Bloomington Pacesetters story: http://sitwithme.org/your-story/?story=1301.