NCWIT Index - Hero Interview Series 2007-2015

The daily routine might have replaced that initial #BackToSchool excitement, but there are still plenty of ways to stay driven for moving the needle for women in tech throughout the rest of the school season. As a change leader, you make a profound positive impact on women’s decisions to continue their educational and professional pursuits in computing. But, have you considered how active mentoring can amplify your influence?

Mentoring can have positive effects for both mentees and mentors. Mentees experience increased confidence and skill set development while mentors experience personal satisfaction and career enhancement. Whether you currently participate in a mentoring program or are interested in joining one, this newsletter features resources and programs for next steps in making the most out of a mentoring experience.

In the spirit of #BackToSchool, we look forward to equipping you with more NCWIT programs and resources to help you achieve your goals as a change leader.

In this post:

• Utilize Mentoring Resources and Programs
• Nominate Mentors in Higher Education

Utilize Mentoring Resources and Programs

NCWIT supports the following mentoring programs that can help to facilitate relationships with students in various settings and levels of commitment.

• MentorNet, an NCWIT Affinity Group Alliance Member, connects STEM students from freshman year through the doctoral level with mentors working in a variety of STEM fields. And, it starts with 15 minutes per week. Find out more at www.mentornet.org.
• NCWIT is a proud partner of Million Women Mentors (MWM), an initiative to reach a goal of one million mentors (male and female) for girls and women in STEM careers by 2019. Find out more at www.millionwomenmentors.org.

Effective mentoring programs are carefully planned, with attention to specifying, communicating, and measuring objectives, as well as developing sufficient resources to implement fully. The following NCWIT resources provide case studies of exemplary programs as well as guidance for evaluation.

• REU-in-A-Box: Expanding the Pool of Computing Researchers -- REU-in-A-Box explains the benefits of undergraduate research in computing, describes ways to get students involved, outlines how faculty and students can participate, discusses how to set expectations and manage the experience, and describes typical deliverables of successful undergraduate research experiences in computing. (www.ncwit.org/reubox)
• Mentoring-in-a-Box: Women Faculty in Computing -- This Mentoring-in-a-Box outlines why academic women in computer science need mentors, how to find a promising mentee, how to establish a relationship, and more. (www.ncwit.org/facultymentor)
• Evaluating a Mentoring Program Guide -- This guide provides a step-by-step plan with example metrics for evaluating a workplace mentoring program (in either industry or academia), and it can be used as a companion resource to Mentoring-in-a-Box: Women Faculty in Computing. (www.ncwit.org/mentoringeval)

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Nominate Mentors in Higher Education

The NCWIT Academic Alliance (AA) is calling for nominations for the 2016 NCWIT Undergraduate Research Mentoring (URM) Award and the 2016 Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring Award.

• The URM Award, sponsored by AT&T, recognizes individuals for their outstanding mentorship, high-quality research opportunities, recruitment of women and minority students, and efforts to encourage and advance undergraduates in computing-related fields. Each recipient's institution receives a $5,000 gift to support the recipient's research.
  
  Nominations will be accepted through October 18, 2015. You can nominate a colleague or yourself (a self-nomination is perfectly acceptable), and you can nominate more than one person. Winners will be notified in March 2016. To view previous winners and learn more about this award, visit www.ncwit.org/urmaward.

• The Harrold and Notkin Award, sponsored by the NCWIT Board of Directors, recognizes individuals who combine outstanding research accomplishments with excellence in graduate mentoring, as well as those who advocate for recruiting, encouraging, and promoting women and minorities in computing fields. The recipient's institution receives a $5,000 award from NCWIT.
  
  Nominations will be accepted through November 4, 2015. You can nominate a peer or yourself (a self-nomination is perfectly acceptable). To view previous winners and learn more about this award, visit www.ncwit.org/harroldnotkin.

Eligible nominees for either award are faculty members on the campus of a non-profit NCWIT Academic Alliance (AA) institution within the United States.

• All current AA members can be found here.
• Want to nominate someone who is not an AA representative? Non-profit institutions within the U.S. can apply for free membership here.

Visit www.ncwit.org/aa for more information about the NCWIT Academic Alliance.

Stage tech companies raise on average $60M per year
1652_ 8/31/15 - Lucy Sanders, the CEO for the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT, and Larry Nelson from w3w3® Media Network are interviewing Paula Sorrell an experienced leader in the technology sector, and a serial entrepreneur who for the past four years has served as Vice President of Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Venture Capital for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Paula Sorrell is an independent consultant focused on strategy and marketing, specifically helping organizations who are building an innovation economy. In her role at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Paula has overseen more than $1 Billion under management to support Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Stage tech companies raise on average $60MM per year. Paula came from a family of technicians. She understands and translates the language for others. Regardless of the field, and she works with many, Paula says, “Technology somehow leads to improving people’s lives, making the world different one technology at a time.”
RELATED LINKS: NCWIT Home || NCIT Blog || Heroes Channel KEYWORDS: Paula Sorrell, NCWIT Hero, Lucinda Sanders, NCWIT, National Center for Women and Technology, Larry Nelson
LISTEN TO: Paula Sorrell

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Adapting with technology, NCWIT Hero is Founder and CMO
1651_ 8/10/15 - Lucy Sanders, the CEO for the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT, and Larry Nelson from w3w3® Media Network are interviewing Molly McFarland, Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of AdAdapted. This is part of a series of interviews that we are having with fabulous entrepreneurs. Women who have started “IT” companies in a variety of sectors, all of whom have just fabulous stories to tell us, about being entrepreneurs. Molly McFarland is an entrepreneur who has a passion for bringing leading-edge solutions to market, and is always pushing beyond the obvious. The AdAdapted platform automates the native advertising model for advertisers that want to reach mobile app users. This allows advertisers to launch scalable, trackable, custom branded campaigns across a wide variety of apps. Prior to her position at AdAdapted, Molly held the position of Director of Marketing at Amplifinity, where she provided strategy and support for a successful sales team, formed strategic partnerships, and assisted in raising Series A funding.
RELATED LINKS: NCWIT Home || NCIT Blog || Heroes Channel || AdAdapted || KEYWORDS: Molly McFarland, AdAdapted, transparency, apps, mobile advertising, native advertising, NCWIT Hero, Lucinda Sanders, NCWIT, National Center for Women and Technology, Larry Nelson, bytes=28539836
LISTEN TO: Molly McFarland, Founder and CMO, AdAdapted


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667_ Only 12% of graduates are women - we need a huge segment of the population to be involved.
The first annual NCWIT Symons Innovator Award was presented to Anousheh Ansari this past Monday, May 11th, and it was a remarkable event. We stood 100 strong in the foyer of Heidi Roizen's home as Jennie Symons, the orphaned 9 year old daughter of Jeanette Symons presented the award to Anousheh Ansari, the first woman private explorer in space, the first astronaut of Iranian descent and with her family, title sponsor of the Ansari X Prize. She is Chair, CEO and Co-founder of Prodea Systems, and formerly Chair, CEO and Co-Founder of Telecom Technologies, Inc. a technology company sold for $750 million. These men and women, gathered here, are outstanding examples of the promise and the future for 'women and information technology'. We begin this story in Atherton, CA, to celebrate one woman's success and to work on preparing the road for future young women and for the competitive advantage of our country... Statistics show that better than 50% of new entrepreneurs are female. They receive 3% of the VC investments and only 5% of the Federal funds set aside for new businesses. It is a gender issue to be sure. While many women of varying ages and interests are taking the entrepreneurial plunge, Lucy Sanders points out another big issue, not so readily recognized, is the Global competitiveness of our country so adversely affected by a subtle gender bias. Today the numbers of students going into computer science studies are plummeting. As this workforce dwindles, the best job opportunities grow. While attending the NCWIT Conference hosted by Google, Jeff Huber, Sr. VP of Engineering at Google said, "It's a critical problem! A crisis for the industry, for Google." Only 12% of graduates are women at a time when we need a huge segment of the population to be involved. Is the study of math and science important to our collective future? We certainly believe so and the National Center for Women and Information Technology is making the difference.
Related Links: NCWIT Heroes || NCWIT Blog || CO Coalition for Gender and IT || NCWIT Practice|| NCWIT Channel || PHOTOS Reception || Google Campus || Keywords: NCWIT, Lucy Sanders, Women in IT, National Center for Women & Information Technology, NCWIT Heroes, NCWIT Toolbox Series, Google, Jeff Huber, Anousheh Ansari, Jeanette Symons, First NCWIT Symons Innovator Award > Channels: NCWIT Bytes: 6525913 > 5/18/09

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