IEEE/ACM Student Chapter Receives NCWIT Student Seed Fund Gift from Google.org

After hearing about the NCWIT (National Center for Women and Information Technology) Student Seed fund at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in October, the officers of our IEEE/ACM Student Chapter worked together to prepare an application. Thanks to the efforts of Taylor Klodowski (Secretary), Jessica Anastasio (Vice President), AJ Al-Khandari (President) and Taylor Campos (Treasurer) in writing an engaging proposal, we have been selected as a recipient of the NCWIT Student Seed Fund gift of $3,000 from Google.org! This gift will be used to create an ACM-W (Association for Computing Machinery Committee on Women in Computing) chapter on campus.

Student chapters of ACM-W serve to increase recruitment and retention of women in computing fields at the university level, and will offer students activities and projects that aim to improve the working and learning environments for women in computing. Women in Computing (WIC) groups, such as ACM-W, can increase women’s confidence and enjoyment of their technical studies, help reduce feelings of isolation, dispel common myths and stereotypes, and empower students to actively recruit and mentor other women.

“We are excited about and so appreciative of Google.org and NCWIT’s efforts to help us establish our own ACM-W chapter on Monmouth’s campus, and want it to be a resource for the community including students in our neighboring community colleges” said Prof. Jamie Kretsch, IEEE/ACM advisor and department chair.

Monmouth University is a member of the NCWIT Academic Alliance, which brings together representatives from academic computing programs at more than 400 colleges and universities across the country. Charged with implementing institutional change in higher education, the Academic Alliance provides feedback on NCWIT programs, contributes and adopts effective practices, and serves as a national agent of change.