Eleven days ago we bid adieu to the year that was 2014! For good or bad, the year has finally ended and it's time to start setting our plans for 2015 in motion.
Friendly reminder that if you want to assist with any of my plans below or want to know how to be active in your own area, please feel free to contact me! I check my email daily and try to be as punctual as possible with my replies.
Anyways, here's what 2015 has in store:
Friendly reminder that if you want to assist with any of my plans below or want to know how to be active in your own area, please feel free to contact me! I check my email daily and try to be as punctual as possible with my replies.
Anyways, here's what 2015 has in store:
SHE++ Campus Ambassador
To be honest, when I applied for this position as a She++ Campus Ambassador, an initiative to alleviate the struggles women face in the CS/IT fields on college campuses, I had no idea how prestigious or huge it was. But here I am now with major corporate sponsorship and backing ready to bring huge changes to George Mason University.
As the Campus Ambassador Summit is in mid April (and I get an all expenses paid trip to attend in Silicon Valley!!), here are the things I want to work on and why:
Create a mentoring program for the female CS/IT student body:
Review the GMU CS Department Honor Code:
It is absolutely no secret in the CS department here at Mason that the Honor Code we have is disturbingly antiquated, mainly because it actively discourages and penalizes discussion among students. These are just a few of the consequences it has brought about:
Hackathons:
Hackathons are the biggest trend in the field right now, serving as community and network building events for professionals and enthusiast to get together and learn something new, hone their skills, or maybe meet a future employer. Regardless of what you love Hackathons for, Mason needs to have some more of their own:
Social Dinners and Gatherings:
What better way to meet and talk with others than over some delicious food? The CS/IT departments need more social events (with some food to really attract people) for minority demographics to build a stronger community. This also opens up the opportunity to invite keynote speakers to discuss any variety of topics.
As the Campus Ambassador Summit is in mid April (and I get an all expenses paid trip to attend in Silicon Valley!!), here are the things I want to work on and why:
Create a mentoring program for the female CS/IT student body:
- As a sophomore in the computer science department, I still do not have any professors I feel comfortable talking to personally or asking recommendations from. As I tend to be rather outgoing and outspoken, I imagine for other women in the same position this is just as big a problem for them as it is for me.
- The lack of friendly faces in CS/IT for women in the field to look up is a huge issue that discourages many from continuing their passion or from joining the field in the first place. By creating a mentoring program, we can alleviate our retention problems in the department by giving our female students outlets to discuss their interests and express their concerns. Sometimes all you really need to stay motivated is to know that there is someone ready to listen and talk with you.
- Many young women in the field feel uncomfortable talking with their peers or professors because of the "impostor syndrome" feeling, that they feel they don't belong and are "faking it 'till they make it" because of their minority status. Through a mentoring program and other "community-building" activities, we can help these women feel more secure in their chosen field as well as help build strong networks.
Review the GMU CS Department Honor Code:
It is absolutely no secret in the CS department here at Mason that the Honor Code we have is disturbingly antiquated, mainly because it actively discourages and penalizes discussion among students. These are just a few of the consequences it has brought about:
- It prohibits the acquisition of strong 21st Century Skills like meaningful argumentation and criticism, debate, and personal responsibility which are absolutely crucial for surviving in the modern workforce. They also do not gain the necessary workforce skills of knowing how to work with others on projects and what happens when two or more different programming styles or ways of thinking meet and how to overcome such a situation.
- Students are afraid to ask for help from the wrong person and receive an Honor Code violation which would cause them to fail and retake the class. Students would sooner take a bad grade rather than ask for help and risk an Honor Code violation. This causes huge issues when students are stuck with professors that do not meet their learning style needs and become trapped with not being able to ask for help from their peers.
- It reinforces the negative stereotype that computer scientists are socially-awkward, work alone, and don't know how to work with others on assignments because students are prohibited from engaging in discussion on works.
- It is inaccessible to students who come from non-technical backgrounds. Non-technical students who take introductory CS classes are met with an oppressive and hostile atmosphere that gives them an extremely negative and blatantly false first impression of what the CS/IT field is like. This results in barrier that is very difficult for students with little to know technical experience to overcome, preventing non-traditional demographics from finding interest in the field. By fixing this issue, we can better diversify the department by being more welcoming to a variety of demographics.
- It gives our professors the wrong idea about our students. Rather than seeing our students as taking initiative in their learning by engaging in meaningful discussion with their peers and seeking help, they are seen as taking shortcuts or outright cheating which is, more often than not, simply not true. We have had professors outright say that their introductory CS class is meant to "weed out those not fit for the field". This is radically inappropriate.
Hackathons:
Hackathons are the biggest trend in the field right now, serving as community and network building events for professionals and enthusiast to get together and learn something new, hone their skills, or maybe meet a future employer. Regardless of what you love Hackathons for, Mason needs to have some more of their own:
- Hackathons will build a strong community and allow students and faculty to meet and work together on various projects.
- Hackathons are known for attracting corporate sponsors and employees, something both the Mason student body and faculty will be very interested in.
- They attract students and professionals from all over, especially from other schools. This could be an opportunity to show off Mason to other schools and students.
Social Dinners and Gatherings:
What better way to meet and talk with others than over some delicious food? The CS/IT departments need more social events (with some food to really attract people) for minority demographics to build a stronger community. This also opens up the opportunity to invite keynote speakers to discuss any variety of topics.