Broadening participation in computing: issues and challenges
Proceedings of the 12th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Representation of women in CS: how do we measure a program's success?
Proceedings of the 40th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
There is acute demand for information technology workers in the United States. This demand is likely to continue for many years. To meet this escalating demand, it is imperative for computer science departments to recruit and retain female students who are currently under represented. Female students should have the same opportunity as male students to occupy the rewarding and highly compensated jobs in information technology fields. However, the number of female students entering and completing undergraduate study in computer science is significantly lower than expected given the percentages of female students enrolled in higher education. Although almost all other scientific fields have been successful in increasing the number of female majors, the number of female computer science majors has declined. The Augustana Women in Computer Science (AWCS) student organization originated in March 2000 to address this inequality. The purpose of the organization is to assist women in their pursuit of education and careers in computer science and to remove any perceived or real barriers to their success in technicalcareers. Highlights of the program include a student-to-student mentoring program and an outreach program aimed at area elementary students. The mentoring program assigns upper class computer science majors to incoming first year students who have declared a major in computer science. The outreach program gives college students the opportunity to speak with elementary age students about careers in technology.