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SIGCT & NCWIT

Greetings SIGCT and NCWIT members and friends,

I am writing to invite you to join me in planning the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing for the States of Illinois, Florida and Texas. Through a generous grant from the Motorola Foundation, we have the opportunity to offer a regional award event for the girls of these three states and would like to enlist your help and support.  This is part of a larger plan to scale this award nationwide and eventually recognize 1000s of girls per year.

For those of you who haven't experienced the Aspirations Award at an NCWIT meeting, it is a truly inspirational event.  Recognizing and meeting these pioneering young women is very rewarding for everyone involved.

Please visit http://www.ncwit.org/work.awards.aspiration.html for more information on the award and see the attached PDF on NCWIT's effort to scale the award. I highly recommend viewing the award video.

The NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing recognizes young women at the high-school level for their computing-related achievements and interests. By generating visibility for these young women in their local communities, the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing encourages their continued interest in computing, attracts the attention and support of educational and corporate institutions, and emphasizes at a personal level the importance of women's participation in IT and computing.  The award also provides a unique opportunity to connect with girls interested in technical careers before they are making their college plans.

Since this is a pilot program, much of the framework is still taking shape, and will be shaped by you, the committee members. NCWIT is developing a web-based portal to support the award pilots. This will include a centralized application system, the ability to score applications online, and a set of document templates for supporting the award.

Illinois: The kickoff meeting for Illinois took place on July 13 in Schaumburg, IL.  LaSonya Harris from UI Urbana-Champaign is leading the team for Illinois.  Let me know if you are interested in joining this committee and I will connect you.

Texas: Meetings are planning for the following Texas cities next week: Austin Wed 8/5, Dallas Thurs 8/6, & Houston Fri 8/7.  Please let me know if you could attend one of those meetings (or host one - still working out locations)

Florida: We are planning kickoff meetings in Miami & Orlando the week of August 17. 

Information on the project and a deck of PPT slides explaining the project are available here. 

Flyer (PDF)
Slides (PPT)

We are looking for people/organizations to help with promoting the award, selecting the winners for each state, and putting on the award event.

Joe Kmoch
Past President, SIGCT
Chair, NCWIT-SIGCT Collaboration Committee
joe@jkmoch.com

Ruthe Farmer
NCWIT
Ruthe.Farmer@Colorado.EDU