NCWIT: AspireIT

Org: National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)
Url: https://www.ncwit.org/program/bpcnet

CISE researchers and their departments can host an AspireIT program. Researchers and their departments can team up with an Aspirations Award winner to host an AspireIT program. By serving as an AspireIT Program Partner, organizations can facilitate computing programs in their community — encouraging young women to learn new skills and become technology innovators. The approximate time commitment varies by level of involvement (~10-100 hours).

NCWIT AspireIT partners match up with Aspirations in Computing high school and college community members (Program Leaders), with K-12 girls interested in computing. Using a near-peer model, AspireIT Program Leaders share their passion, skills, and journey to teach participants fundamentals in programming and computational thinking in fun, creative environments. The relationship between the AspireIT Program Leaders and their AspireIT Partner Organizations fosters mentoring with technical professionals, increases young women’s confidence in their computing abilities, and develops valuable leadership skills. To help, NCWIT provides grants to Leader-Partner Organization teams of up to $3,000 to aid with program costs.

NCWIT AspireIT leverages the national NCWIT community of universities, companies, nonprofits, and government organizations to increase women’s meaningful participation in computing through a rapidly scalable and cost-effective approach. Started in 2013, the NCWIT AspireIT program has invested $1 million+ to support 400+ programs across the country, providing more than 300,000 hours of instruction to 10,000+ young women.