BOULDER, Colo., March 13, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and Symantec have awarded $9,000 in seed funds to student-run programs that aim to increase the numbers of women studying computer science and related technology disciplines. The 12 winners of the NCWIT Student Seed Fund each will receive $750 for their projects that recruit, retain, and encourage girls and women in technology through outreach, mentoring, professional development, and affinity group support.
Symantec is the sponsor of the NCWIT Student Seed Fund, which to-date has distributed $34,500 in funding to 56 student-run programs at universities and colleges nationwide. Student Seed Fund initiatives have provided programming workshops, after-school programs, student mentoring, peer support, professional training, and other opportunities to nearly 2,000 elementary, middle-school, high-school, undergraduate, and graduate students.
"Symantec recognizes the business benefits of a diverse technical workforce and we believe women need to be a part of this workforce," said Ellen McLatchey, Director of Global Diversity. "We are proud to support these student-led programs because they generate interest in computing while building a stronger, more diverse talent pipeline."
"We're thrilled with Symantec's leadership in recognizing that student-led initiatives can have huge impact, both for the students who run them and their target audiences," said Lucy Sanders, CEO of NCWIT. "Support for these programs is growing the technical pipeline girl by girl, woman by woman."
Following are the recipients of the NCWIT Student Seed Fund awards:
- Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) will direct its award, along with matching funds, to support an inaugural Women in Technology Networking Event.
- James Madison University will invite girls from local middle schools and Girl Scouts troops to its campus for a day of workshops with members of its Women in Technology group.
- Northwestern University will use its funding to grow its newly formed Women in Computing group and plan academic and professional development events that support undergraduates.
- Purdue University will fund its mentoring program, which pairs first-year students with upperclassmen in their major who provide academic support and guidance.
- Seattle Central Community College plans to host a LadyCoders Get Hired! Seminar, which provides women with technical résumé and interview preparation.
- Tennessee Technological University will host a series of three events for first-year female students in CS/CE/MIS called, "Tweet Retreat: Mini-Retreat Series for Technical Women Empowering Tech."
- University of California at Irvine will produce three workshops for girls at local middle schools, where they will teach them how to use Scratch (a visual programming software for children.)
- University of Illinois Urbana Champaign's ChicTech students will teach computing concepts to Champaign Public School District students during four weeks of after-school workshops.
- University of Massachusetts at Amherst plans to fund a SISE (Students Improving STEM Education) Catalyst Team that evaluates and reports on student STEM involvement.
- University of Puget Sound has formed a joint ACM-W chapter with Pacific Lutheran University and will use the funds to expand its activities in the community.
- University of Texas Pan American will use its funds to support outreach activities at local elementary and middle schools and field trips to local technology and engineering companies.
- Western New England University is considering a "Women in Technology" Day, outreach to local middle and high schools, and a women's hackathon.
About NCWIT
The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) is a non-profit community of change leaders 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. NCWIT is supported by the National Science Foundation, Microsoft, Bank of America, Avaya, Pfizer, Merck, Turner, AT&T, Bloomberg, EMC, Google, Motorola, Qualcomm, Intel, HP, Symantec, and more than 350 universities, companies, non-profits, and government organizations nationwide. Find out more at http://www.ncwit.org.
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About Symantec
Symantec protects the world's information, and is the 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 industry-leading expertise in protecting data, identities and interactions gives its customers confidence in a connected world. More information is available at www.symantec.com or by connecting with Symantec at: http://go.symantec.com/socialmedia.