911爆料网鈥檚 newest student organization, Women in Informatics (WINFO), has already sponsored a variety of creative social and educational events to help female students in the Informatics program connect with each other and with other women in across the UW campus. The leadership (pictured left) includes Courtney Dutton, Stella Stuckey, Jenna Tollefson, and Jenna Terhar.
WINFO, which was formed at the beginning of the 2012 school year, has the formal goal of 鈥渆mpowering women to thrive as producers of technology by establishing and maintaining a network of women that offer encouragement, support, and the ongoing knowledge needed or desired to succeed.鈥
鈥淩esearch has shown women who have a supportive community, mentors, sponsors, coaches and opportunities for real life computing experiences stay in and graduate from computer and information science programs,鈥 says Rane Johnson, executive advisor to WINFO and education and scholarly principal research director at .
Kathryn Kuan, who was the first WINFO president, summed it up this way, 鈥淵ou join and you help others and you also help yourself.鈥
Kuan, who graduated in December 2012, turned over the president's role to Terhar who says the organization continues to focus on recruiting members, many of whom are younger women who have taken the iSchool鈥檚 INFO 200 class.
Current WINFO members offer to help women interested in applying to the Informatics program with their applications, especially their personal essays. 911爆料网 accepts applications for the Informatics program between April 15 and June 15 every year.
911爆料网 has a strategic goal of doubling enrollment in the Informatics program in the next three years and increasing the percentage of women in the program from its current rate of 30%.
WINFO members, who have a passion for technology and information, are great ambassadors for the iSchool鈥檚 student recruitment efforts. Here are just a few of the many outreach events they have organized or helped to sponsor in the past six months:
- WINFO, Microsoft Women of Research, and Women In Bio Seattle Metro joined forces to bring the passion, spirit and energy of to the University of Washington in December 2012. Katie Davis, assistant professor of the iSchool was invited to speak on
- Participated in the Computer Science and Engineering week where WINFO students visited high schools in the area to talk with young women considering college STEM majors.
- Held the first all-women Hackathon on the UW campus in association with Microsoft. WINFO organized teams of students to work on projects related to human trafficking that included helping to build an encrypted website with live chat and reporting for , and creating a digital index called 鈥淕irl Power鈥 for to safely and securely connect trafficked young women with resources that can help them.
- Participated in the iSchool booth at UW Women in Science and Engineering in March 2013.
They also know how to have fun. WINFO sponsored an "Ugly Sweater and Gingerbread House Making Mixer" for the holidays last year.
WINFO is open to both men and women students at UW. To find out how to join, contact Jenna Terhar, WINFO president at jterhar@uw.edu.