Aspirations in Computing
We envision a world in which women & girls are equal creators of the innovation and technology that shapes all of our lives, and have equal access to education and career opportunities in technology. Though women and girls make up more than 50% of the US population, they hold less than 25% of positions in computing and information technology, the fields which facilitate innovation in virtually every other discipline. We can only imagine the innovations and solutions that will exist when women and girls finally have a place at the design table.
About You
About You
First Name
Ruthe
Last Name
Farmer
About Your Organization
Organization Name
National Center for Women & Information Technology
Organization Website
Organization Phone
303-735-6671
Organization Address
University of Colorado Campus Box 322 UCB Boulder, CO 80309-0322
Organization Country
United States, CO
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States, XX
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
Aspirations in Computing
What change do you want to bring to the world?
We envision a world in which women & girls are equal creators of the innovation and technology that shapes all of our lives, and have equal access to education and career opportunities in technology. Though women and girls make up more than 50% of the US population, they hold less than 25% of positions in computing and information technology, the fields which facilitate innovation in virtually every other discipline. We can only imagine the innovations and solutions that will exist when women and girls finally have a place at the design table.
What are the primary activities of your project?
Aspirations in Computing identifies, recognizes and supports young women with aptitude and interest in technology at the high school level. The program is operates on a national/affiliate structure in which local partners implement the program based on a national model. Once identified, these young women received long-term support to continue their technology pursuits through participation in an online 'virtual peer group', connections to local resources and opportunities, mentorship, scholarships, internships, jobs, and more.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
Aspirations in Computing is the only national initiative for girls in computing that identifies technically-talented young women and engages them in a sustained program of encouragement and support. Aspirations in Computing creates a life-changing experience for girls and has demonstrated, evaluated positive outcomes - 92% of participants now in college report studying a traditionally male-dominated field of engineering or computer science. Unlike talent programs that seek to identify the best and the brightest by placing them in competition with each other, Aspirations in Computing identifies groups of technically-inclined girls, recognizes them en masse, and builds a peer and adult support community around them. Dr. Joshua Aronson's work on the role of encouragement in overcoming stereotype threat substantiates the power of encouragement in influencing educational decisions among minority groups (in our case young women in computing). Many successful adults recollect a specific teacher, mentor, coach or other adult that provided that encouragement - the moment of realizing "I am good at this." Girls, however, are often subtly and overtly discouraged from pursuing their interest in technology. This occurs through male-dominated computing classes, peer-pressure, negative images in the media, stereotypes about technical workers, and societal norms for women. By leveraging NCWIT's established national community of 280 organizations, we are rapidly replicating the program - creating that moment of realization for a targeted 1000 girls per year.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
Aspirations in Computing supports girls in high school and college who are interested in computing and technology pursuits. Unlike other areas of STEM, the participation of young women in computing and information technology is declining rather than growing. In fact the percentage of computing degrees awarded to women has declined 79% in the last decade. Young women experience extreme isolation in the information technology field. Most high school computing classes are 80% male or worse, and this disparity continues at the college level and into the workforce. Though young women make up the majority of college students, high school valedictorians, and AP Calculus test takers, these talented young women are largely not choosing computing and information technology majors, but going into medicine, law and business instead. However, with the right support, interested young women will persist in the technology pipeline where they are so badly needed (The US Dept of Labor projects 1.4 M new jobs in technology by 2018).
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Ruthe Farmer has focused her efforts on increasing girls’ participation in technology and engineering since 2001. She considers herself a social 'intrepreneur', in that she believes in leveraging existing youth program infrastructures to deploy STEM content at large scale, rather than creating redundant infrastructure. She has employed this strategy to scale up engineering and robotics programs within Girl Scouts of the USA reaching 1000's of girls and is now employing the same strategy to address the shortage of young women in computing.
Ruthe has served on the NCWIT Leadership Team and as the co-chair of the NCWIT K-12 Alliance, on the National Girls Collaborative Project Champions Board, the FIRST Robotics Girls FIRST Advisory Board, and is a founding board member of Springboard Innovation, a nonprofit dedicated to incubating grass roots social entrepreneurs. She sits on the the Lewis & Clark College Board of Alumni, is an ambassador for the University of Oxford Said Business School, and is also a founding board member of Her Story Media, a nonprofit media production company that tells the stories of technical women.
Ruthe brings a wealth of experience in informal education, national collaboration, and fund development. She holds an MBA in Social Entrepreneurship & Marketing from the University of Oxford and is passionate about integrating innovative entrepreneurial strategies into her work.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
Since piloting a local affiliate model and toolkit in 2009-10, the Aspirations in Computing program grew dramatically to 18 local programs serving 22 US States and Puerto Rico in 2010-11, with 30 local programs anticipated in 2011-12. 322 partner organizations participate in local programs as sponsors, judges, volunteers, and mentors, providing over 1000 volunteers from industry and academia. More than 20 universities offer scholarships to Aspirations in Computing participants and we are on target to increase that number five-fold in the next year. The program has grown from recognizing 35 girls annually to 455 girls in 2010-11. By Fall 2012 we expect to recognize 1000 girls per year and draw interest from an applicant pool of 10,000 young women.
Beyond growth metrics, success is measured via program evaluations administered to the girls and other participants (parents, teachers, volunteers). Participants report 1)greater confidence in their technical abilities, 2) increased enthusiasm about computing, and 3)more awareness of the career opportunities available to them. We conduct annual follow-up surveys which track intended and declared college majors and minors, internships, and jobs achieved by participants.
Additionally, we rely on anecdotal evidence posted in the online peer group. One representative post states: "I just wanted to take a moment to say how much NCWIT has really changed my life. Before I heard of NCWIT, I was pretty convinced that I was destined for a career in practiced medicine, and that my computer science interests would stay a hobby. But then NCWIT connected me with fabulous people like you all, and showed me all the possibilities in the computer science field. Thank you so much to Ruthe and all the other insanely hardworking people at NCWIT, we appreciate you!"
How many people have been impacted by your project?
1,001- 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
We expect to achieve nationwide coverage by 2013. Our goal is to have 70+ local programs operating and serve all 50 US states and territories within the next three years. Currently the program is managed by 1.5 staff at the national level and over 100 volunteer coordinators & committee members at the local level. As the program expands, we envision regional staff that manage groups of local affiliates and meet the needs of a growing pool of volunteers.
The existing program infrastructure presents endless opportunity for enhancement. We have already created an Educator recognition program in conjunction with the girls' program. Potential future program additions include recognition for middle school girls, and expanding to work with college students not previously reached.
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
The challenge to growing and sustaining this project is keeping the local volunteers engaged. We have worked hard to make the program as easy and accessible as possible and have developed an online toolkit and support network for local implementation. The program model is extremely flexible, and local programs can be adapted to fit the capacity of the partners. The entry level cost to participate is only $50 per girl.
To ensure sustainability, local affiliates are collaborations of the entire computing pipeline made up of a team of at least three organizations. This guarantees that if one partner drops out, the program will be sustained by the others.
Additionally, volunteers are engaged in the annual program review and re-design process to make sure the toolkit is as useful as possible. Also, we conduct regular training and Q&A webinars for new and returning volunteers, and seasoned volunteers provide assistance to new groups.
Tell us about your partnerships
The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) is a coalition of 280+ corporations, non-profits and academic institutions working to increase women's meaningful participation in information technology. NCWIT is the only full-pipeline computing community in the US. Aspirations in Computing leverages the NCWIT community infrastructure to replicate the program nationwide easily and cheaply. In addition to working with NCWIT members, we engage with local partners to create a full-pipeline support network in each community. To date 322 organizations have participated in the program as sponsors, hosts, volunteers, judges, and mentors.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$250,001‐500,000
Explain your selections
-Individuals volunteer as local coordinators, committee members and judges.
-NGO's in K12 Education assist in publicizing the program to eligible girls.
-Local businesses provide support in the form of sponsorship, volunteers, prizes, event space and internships/jobs.
-Regional & National government education agencies participate in promoting the program to girls.
-Academic institutions provide scholarships, event space, mentoring, volunteers, and judges.
-Customers (girls) provide peer-peer support. For example girls currently in college advice those coming up; and 5 different Aspirations girls hosted IT camps for younger girls in their community this summer.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
We will continue to invest in the technology infrastructure (web-based application processing system and toolkit) to support local implementation and replication. We will expand upon the existing local affiliate implementation toolkit, introduce seed grants for areas that serve underrepresented populations, and provide expanded opportunities for volunteers to share practices and resources in an online community.
Partnerships and Accountability
Please tell us more about how your partnership was formed and how it functions. What specific role does each partner play? What unique resources does each partner bring to the initiative?
Local Aspirations in Computing programs are hosted by member organizations of the National Center for Women & IT (NCWIT) in a sort of franchise model. To create this program we reached out to our members, who then formed local teams of both members and nonmember organizations to implement locally. We require full pipeline teams including K-12 organizations (schools and nonprofits), academic institutions, and corporations. The K-12 organizations provide outreach to girls, academic institutions provide scholarships and access to mentors and facilities, and corporations provide volunteers, sponsorship, facilities and internships.
How are you building in accountability for students' successful STEM learning outcomes? Please provide a summary and examples.
Aspirations in Computing seeks to identify and support girls already interested in computing & IT - the so-called 'low hanging fruit'- the girls most likely to enter technical fields, but currently are exiting the field at an alarming rate. Each girl is selected based upon a rigorous application, which is reviewed and endorsed by both her parent and her teacher. Each application is then read by at minimum 4 volunteer reviewers from industry. Once selected girls are publicly recognized and receive engraved plaques for home and the school trophy case, a selection of prizes, scholarships, college information, etc. After the recognition event, girls opt-in to further opportunities such as: an exclusive online community, in-person meet-ups (all the girls attending college in Boston meet up quarterly for dinner), networking opportunities (girls in the Bay Area spent a day at Google, girls in Portland attended a technology conference and CIO luncheon), and projects (12 girls are collaborating to build an Android app for recycling). Girls are encouraged to remain engaged with the program throughout high school and college.
Needs
Investment, Marketing/Media, Innovation/Ideas, Mentorship.
Please use this space to elaborate on your selection above and/or to add needs that may not be listed.
This project is scaling rapidly, so we are interested in investment as well as ideas and mentorship for managing rapid growth. We are, of course, interested in help with marketing/media in order to grow the pool of young women that get the opportunity to participate.
Offers
Marketing/Media, Research/Information, Collaboration/Networking, Innovation/Ideas.
Please use this space to elaborate on your selection above and/or to add offers that may not be listed.
The database of Aspirations in Computing participants offers a unique opportunity for marketing of additional STEM opportunities, as well as a research pool of talented technically-inclined young women. There are many opportunities to collaborate to provide further resources for these young women (new internship pathways, entrepreneurship training, networking opportunities) and bring additional young women into the program.
Additionally, we welcome the opportunity to share ideas on leveraging and scaling with other programs.
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Comments
Aspirations in Computing is an inspirational award for all who receive it. As a girl from a low-income family who loves technology, this award gave me the confidence and help I need to raise my chances of getting into my dream college and pursuing robotics.
This program brought so many things together for me. It jump-started my college career, gave me support and encouragement to pursue Computer Science, introduced me to girls like me from across the country, and even brought me closer to girls I either already knew from other camps or people that I would later attend programs, or even school, with.
Without the Award for Aspirations in Computing, I wouldn't have been able to feel confident in my engineering and other STEM abilities while being the olny female in many of my STEM classes. This competition definetly has allowed me to become the computer science oriented girl I am today, and I whole-heartedly appreciate it.
NCWIT has opened so many opportunities for and has given me the confidence to succeed in a career in computing!
This is an excellent program! As program coordinator of Young Women in Computing at NMSU I have seen this program impact students' lives first hand!
The Aspirations in Computing award program has made incredible changes to girls' lives and aspirations in joining the computing field. To win, they must have already shown some inspiration to participate in the field, but the award and the camaraderie with the other award winners has encouraged so many girls to stay in the field. We look forward to hosting an award competition in Southern California this round.
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