by Sarah Hartley |
Instead of makeup and clothing, think of keyboards and hard drives. Since 2007, the National Center for Women & Information Technology, NCWIT, has hosted an awards event for teenage girls in high school interested in computing. The awards are strictly based on interest and the qualifications are simple; participant must be in high school, must showcase strong leadership ability, must have a good academic history, and must have plans for a post-secondary education.
Throughout the past four years, over 850 girls have already been publicly recognized for their aspirations in computing and have received many prizes; $500 cash, a laptop computer, a trip to Charlotte, North Carolina for the Bank of America Technology Showcase, an awards ceremony and an engraved crystal award for both the student and the student’s school.
This year, Missouri and Kansas will team up to host their own local Affiliate Awards following the end of the national program. All entries from Kansas and Missouri entered into Nationals will be used for this event and prizes for the winners will be similar to the national prizes.
“We are experiencing a significant drop in female graduates coming out of college that choose a computer-related field,” Business and Computer Teacher Angie Klein said.
There is not a definite answer for why there are so few women in the industry, but there is speculation.
“IT is considered masculine,” sophomore Aaron Bass said. “IT isn’t ‘pretty,’ it’s not what most girls want to do.” This idea that it isn’t for girls comes up more than once.
“There’s a stereotype that it’s a boy’s thing so girls just kind of back away from it,” junior Emily Morgan said.
“It’s kind of nerdy,” senior Jessyka Vernickas said. Whatever the stigma or history is for girls in IT, there is no denying they have plenty of opportunities to excel in the industry. According to NCWIT, it is estimated that there will be 1.4 million computer specialist jobs available in the U.S. by 2020, of which only 30 percent will be filled. Thus, the IT market is and will continue to be overflowing with jobs, especially for graduates in the near future.
“I think there is always an IT job open,” Vernickas said. “It’s not something that a lot of people do.”
In terms of benefiting our school, these awards are hoping to help girls branch out and participate in areas that are lacking a strong female population.
“I’m hoping this event benefits our district in creating an awareness of the field,” Klein said. “There’s plenty of jobs and not enough people coming out of colleges to fill the jobs. The jobs are now becoming more diverse. There are other things to do than just be a programmer.”
“It could benefit the girls interested in technology,” Vernickas said. “They could get scholarships for school.”
Girls looking to play a role in an important time in history, the technology era, should be sure to participate in this event. The application process ends on October 31st.
For more information regarding the event, visit http://ww2.ncwit.org/award/award.index.php, or stop by Mrs. Klein’s room.
“It’s a growing industry,” Morgan said. “It’s super helpful in everything that you’re going to need to use for business or any job opportunity.”
