by, for, and about women in science, technology, engineering, & math

Hi! I just found this site from DevChix (thanks, Jeanne!).

So just wanted to say hello and what an awesome site this is! I’m a software developer – I have The Hacker Chick Blog and I just landed a totally snazzy new job as a Developer Evangelist for Startups at Microsoft.

One of the amazing things is all of the great programs that Microsoft sponsors for students. I actually got to spend my first day volunteering at a DigiGirlz Day where we brought very cool next generation technology (Surface/multi-touch, electronic art, fabric-based computers – totally neat!) to around 300 high school girls. That was _totally _my coolest 1st day on a job ever. :-)

DigiGirlz Website: http://www.microsoft.com/about/diversity/programs/digigirlz/default.aspx

We also do Imagine Cup, which is a worldwide student competition, where students compete to build technology that addresses some of our greatest challenges like hunger and environmental issues. The US Finals are being held April 26th in Washington DC and they’re open to everyone (am a little jealous I won’t be able to get down to DC for this!): https://www.microsoftusevents.com/IC10communityshowcase/Content/Home.aspx

Anyway, just thought some of you might be interested, I’ll try to post more things like this as I find them and am looking forward to meeting more of you on the site! :)

Since this is my first blog post here, I wanted to briefly introduce myself. I’m a first year graduate student at UC Davis studying applied mathematics. I’ve become very interested in mathematical biology over the last few years and have some research under my belt. I hope to become a professor someday, but that day is a long way off. Some of my other loves include writing and reading all kinds of media. One of my goals for writing blogs here would be to better develop skills in communicating science and mathematics, along with my enthusiasm for these subjects.

Like I said before, I’m a first year graduate student. This means I have very little free time. But I really wanted to start my blog with something. So I thought I would publish (republish?) something I wrote for my old school’s newspaper about applying to graduate school. I say republish(?) because it may have been published, but I just don’t know. I asked for a copy or weblink, but never got any information about it. Suffice it to say the article is certainly not online anywhere. Please note that this was written for last fall, and so the timeline may be a bit different from where applicants should be right now.

So without further ado, applying to graduate school.

Applying to Graduate School

With the jobless rate for college graduates at a disturbing high, it may be tempting to remain in school for another few years. For students who are serious about continuing their education, attending graduate school can be a promising option. Because getting into graduate school at all can be a struggle, it is important to begin the application process as soon as you can. What should you be doing right now? Here are a few suggestions:

• Decide whether to attend graduate school next year or take a year off. Taking a year off before graduate school is a very popular option. Those who take a year off usually have more time to complete their application. Some things to do on your year off include getting a job or internship related to your intended field of study, traveling, or doing community service. Any of these can enhance an application.

• Decide where to apply and put the application due dates on your calendar. Some applications may be due this semester or immediately after finals! Sometimes schools have different dates depending on whether you want to be considered for funding. Be sure to apply in time to qualify, since graduate school can be expensive without a fellowship or assistantship.

• Know what you need to do for each application. Print out the application requirements for each school and check them off as you complete them. Completing part of the process will make you feel better.

• Take the entrance exams: If you are applying to graduate school next year, you will need to take any required entrance exams immediately! Check the application requirements for each program and take each required test. Recommended exams are also a good idea. If you have missed your opportunity to take a test this semester, contact someone at your programs and ask them if they will still accept your application. They may recommend taking the exam next semester. Also, be sure to report your scores to each school.

• Send your transcripts now. This is probably the easiest part of the application, but if you do not send your transcript in time it can break your application. Some programs may require this semester’s grades. If so, be sure to tell the registrar to wait for this semester’s grades before sending your transcript to that school.

• Talk to your professors. They are a great resource for the application process and many will be excited to hear that you are considering studying their field. Professors went to graduate school and have an understanding of at least their own graduate program. They may also know people at the schools to which you are applying. Be sure to ask them to write a recommendation letter for you.

• You can also get advice from Career Services, especially if you are applying to a professional school.

• Show your application, especially your essays, to several people. Ask professors, friends, parents, and to read your essays and comment on them. You do not have to do everything that they suggest, but you will be able to improve your application. Read your essays aloud to yourself as well.

• Do not worry about visiting schools before you apply. In general, graduate schools prefer that you visit after you are accepted. Many will pay for you to visit in the spring!

• Join a supportive community. Online, you can find other graduate applicants at The Grad Cafe, but you can also find other students on campus who are applying.

Good luck with your applications.

Anecdotally, a lot of the men I know in science/tech/math have been interested in these fields since grade school; by the time they got to college, they’d already taken some advanced classes and were ready to major in these subjects. And while there are certainly plenty of women I know who were on math team in high school (or something similar), I also know a lot of women who realized they were interested in these fields later in life, after they’d already studied a non-technical field in college, and took a less traditional path to learning about it; some of them are self-taught in technical fields, and some of them are going back to school to learn more about their newfound interests.

My story is sort of in between. I’d always been somewhat interested in computers, but never really learned any programming. In my third year of college, when I was already well on my way to a linguistics degree, I decided that since I was interested in computational linguistics and natural language processing in particular (at the time I thought I’d go to grad school for linguistics), I’d benefit from taking an intro to computer science course. I decided I was up for the challenge of the honors level of the course; even though technically no programming experience was required, I assumed I was starting from behind. And indeed, the guys in the class (out of the 20-some-student class, I was one of two girls) projected an air of confidence and experience, and I felt like I was struggling to keep up with the assignments.

I was surprised, then, when at the end of the quarter, I had one of the highest grades in the class! (This made me wonder if some of the more experienced students had been overconfident and hadn’t worked as hard — I also think it helped that we were learning Scheme, which isn’t something many high school hobbyists pick up on their own :P) I’d also discovered that I loved programming, and started taking classes toward a computer science minor — which quickly turned into squishing a full computer science major into my last two years of college, and deciding I’d rather become a programmer than go to grad school. Since then, my web development skills have been mostly self-taught, though the programming I learned in college certainly gave me a head-start on that.

How did you first get interested in STEM? When and how did you start training in your field (if you’ve done that yet — or how do you plan to)? Share your story in the comments!

Welcome to stemming.org!

Stemming is designed to be an online space where girls and women interested in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) can connect to support each other, network, mentor, share information, and make friends.

You’re encouraged to join the site; you’ll be able to put as much or as little as you want in your profile. The site will suggest other users near you and/or who have similar interests who you might want to connect with; you can also search for other users on a variety of criteria. Once you’ve found people you want to connect with, you can add them as friends on the site and/or send them networking requests (which will share your email with them, so you can get in touch offsite) through the buttons on their profile.

The site also features a collaborative blog; once you’ve joined the site, you can post a new blog entry. All your blog entries will show up on your profile, in the master list of posts, and when posts are searched; an administrator will pick selected posts from the stemming community to promote to the front page. We hope to get some good discussions going in the blogs — share your experiences, give advice to a younger version of yourself, ask a question or take an informal poll, or really just post anything you find interesting. Anyone on the site can add a new blog post!

We also have an informal mentoring/networking system; we’re hoping to expand this in the future, but for now, when you view another user’s profile, if they’ve indicated that they’re interested in networking, being a mentor, or having a mentor, you’ll see links on their profile to “send a request” for one of these types of connections. This will send them an email with your contact information encouraging them to get in touch so that you can meet and connect offsite. You can browse users by tag, search users, or view the list of all users to find people you may want to talk to.

The about page has some more information about the site; you can also always get in touch with any questions, comments, or suggestions (I’d love to hear from you!).

And just to get everyone excited, here’s a great video from the Grace Hopper celebration of Women in Computing: