Dec. 1, 2005
Jesuit Foundation Grant Assessment
Summer Outreach Program for Potential Women Computer Scientists
David Wolber
Summary
Twenty -one girls from six Bay Area high schools attended a week long program on computer science and technology on the USF campus. The program was taught by USFcomputer science students Cindy Zhou, Pooja Garg, and Jennifer Reyes, as well as Professor David Wolber. The students programmed robots, wrote web applications that accessed data from Amazon, took computers apart (and put them back together!) and learned how to do research on the web.
The program featured guest speakers Ellen Spertus and Neha Nerula from Google, Lada Adamic from HP, Page Malliard from Wilson-Sonsini, Debbie Clingingsmith from Immaculate Conception Academy, Kelly Gotlib from Tyco (and a USF alum) and Stephanie Ohshita from USF's Department of Environmental Science. USF alum and Board of Trustee Teresa Win closed the session by talking about her experiences as an entrepreneur with EnCommerce.
One of the highlights of the week was a field trip to Cisco Systems, setup by Cisco's Shirley Wong.
The week-long program was organized by USF professor David Wolber and USF Alum and Board of Trustee Teresa Win.
A full description of the program is available at http://cs.usfca.edu/~sep/. The program was also reported on in USF News:
http://www.usfca.edu/usfnews/news_stories/Computer_Science_enr.html
Outcomes
The project was successful on a number of fronts, including fostering the enthusiasm for young women into technological study, learning more about what motivates young women to learn more about technology, connections to local high schools, and encouraging public service in our students.
Encouraging young women into Technology
The response we received from the attendees, at the end of the week, was overwhelmingly positive. “Can we come for another week?” was the general sentiment. They had fun, they learned a lot, but more than anything they were given a vision of what is possible for women in computer science and related fields. Students commented on the amazing Kudlick classroom, on our field trip to Cisco where they met women executives and software developers, on the various speakers from Google, etc., and perhaps most about our USF students who taught the lessons—what role models they were for the girls!
Learning about what Motivates young women
The week was a great eye-opener for me in terms of what types of projects are motivating to young students (women or men). The students were incredibly motivated by the visual and tangible nature of the Lego Mindstorm robots which they programmed one day, as well as the dismantling and re-building of a computer. They also wrote programs to connect with the Amazon database of music products and build a web page of their favorite music. Sometimes, in Computer Science, we get too focused on the technology and the syntax/semantics of programming languages, and forget that people learn to program in order to build cool things. Focusing on the motivational factor for this week was a great experience for me and the other teachers, and I have already incorporated what I learned into my teaching.
High School Recruitment
In preparation for the event, I (Wolber) visited seven Bay Area high schools to tell students and teachers about the program. This is the first time in some years that we have connected to potential feeder schools. The relationships I began with the computer teachers will be very helpful for future recruiting.
Encouraging Public Service
The USF college students who taught the course also gained a new sense of enthusiasm for their field, and a sense of the networking and friendships that women in this field have. They were able to observe a number of successful professionals, including USF Board of Trustee Teresa Win, give freely of their valuable time. They also experienced the wonderful feeling of performing a worthwhile service to others, which I think will stay with them in the years to come.
Budget
We received a grant of $5000 from the Jesuit Foundation for the program. The funds went for stipends for one student who helped organize and schedule my high school visits and the event, a stipend for the student-teachers and myself, lunch each day for the students, and small gifts for the presenters. The total costs:
Stipends $3978
Lunches/Presenter Gifts $1193
Total $5171
Summary
The percentages of women coming into technology has dwindled in recent years. Our summer program was a small but significant push in the other direction. My gut-feeling is that the experience will make a difference in a number of young women’s lives, including the high school girls and the college student-teachers. I definitely walked around with a buzz for sometime afterward.
The project has been much talked about in our department, both for its general merits and its potential for recruiting students to USF and computer science. We are planning to apply for funds to make it an annual event, and also planning to include a separate, similar week that is not restricted to women. None of this would have been possible without the help of the Jesuit Foundation.
Please accept my sincere gratitude for your help,
David Wolber
Professor, Department of Computer Science