Through the KapCC’s STEM Program, two UH students were granted an all-expenses paid trip to Minnesota early October. During their trip students Nicole Ito and Daralyn Young participated in the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing hosted by the Anita Borg Institute.
Nicole Ito, 25, is currently working towards a Bachelors of Applied Science in Information Technology at UH West Oʻahu. Nominated by faculty member Michael Paulding, Ito learned in August that she had been awarded the STEM Program grant. Ito explained that, “This is the frst time our college is doing this so I had no idea the opportunity even exsited until I got an email from my department head telling me I was nominated.”
KapCC student Daralyn Young, 23, nominated by faculty member, Keolani Noa, was informed soon after that she, along with Ito would be attending the conference.
Founded in 1994 the weeklong conference focused on the role of women in today’s technology fields. Grace Hopper, the inspiration to the conference, was a serving United States Rear Admiral. Hopper’s early work helped pave the way towards code optimization, symbolic manipulation, formula translation, and subroutines. According to the Anita Borg Institute website, Grace Hopper was a “mathematician, computer scientist, social scientist, corporate politician, marketing whiz, systems designer, and programmer, and always, a visionary.”
During the conference representatives from companies such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook, came to speak and meet with the conference attendees. Students were even granted one-on-one interviews with different company executives and representatives.
“We had a session where you could talk to a professional and get insight and advice about our career goals,” she said. “There was a career fair running the entire week with people like Amazon, White Pages, and Google, all recruiting. There was so much more going on but those where the most useful to me.”
“Once we got to attend the first day of the conference I actually felt a little intimidated by everyone because it felt like they had more experience than I did,” Young said, “But don’t get me wrong. It was amazing to be around strong women from all over that have a passion in the computer science field.”
Throughout the week, students, faculty, and professionals attended multiple events. Daily events included career fairs, leadership workshops, networking lunches, seminars and labs.
“It was really an overwhelming experience. As soon as we landed it was go, go, go all the time,” Ito said.
Young and Ito encourage fellow classmates interested STEM and IT fields to considered this program.
More information can be found at the sites included below.
http://stem.kapiolani.hawaii.edu/stem-grants/
http://stem.kapiolani.hawaii.edu/internships-scholarships/