AAUW Gets $100K Grant To Expand Courses at Tech Trek Camps
A major information protection company has given the American
Association of University Women (AAUW) $100,000 to expand course
offerings in
its National Tech
Trek Program in which middle-school girls spend a week at a
summer camp focusing on science, technology, engineering and math
(STEM).
The grant from Symantec will allow AAUW to create a
pilot course in cybersecurity at camps scheduled at Bowling
Green State
University, Stanford University and the University of California Irvine.
AAUW initiated the first Tech Trek summer camp at
Stanford in
1998. Three years ago, the AAUW national organization expanded the
program
throughout the country and this summer 1,600 girls will attend camps in
21
locations, mostly on college campuses.
AAUW, an organization whose aim is to empower women
and girls,
focuses the Tech Trek camps on middle-school girls because it believes
that is
the crucial time to stimulate their interest in STEM topics. Research
provided
by AAUW indicates that 77 percent of Tech Trek alumnae have completed a
precalculus
course by the time they graduate from high school, compared to a
national
average of 37 percent for all girls.
"Women make up just 26 percent of the computing
workforce,"
said AAUW Executive Director and CEO Linda D. Hallman, "but AAUW is
working
hard to increase that number."
"Providing STEM and literacy education to young
adults,
particularly women and minorities, is a business imperative at
Symantec," said
Vice President of Corporate Responsibility Cecily Joseph. "This grant
will help
build a pipeline of qualified girls to enter the in-demand field of
cybersecurity."
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.