University of Cincinnati and Saint Ursula Academy Partnership: Introducing Female High School Students to the Field of Information Technology

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a partnership between the School of IT (SoIT), College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH) at the University of Cincinnati (UC), and St. Ursula's Academy (SUA) to introduce Information Technology class sessions to their female student body. Students from UC taught courses to these high schoolers under the supervision of SoIT faculty in order to promote positive attitudes in young women towards the IT field. After the four sessions, the analyzed surveys showed a significant improvement in the young women's attitude towards IT. Moreover, enrollment in these voluntary after-school sessions increased from the first session to the final session--further evidence that positive attitudes were flourishing in these young women and their peers. Overall, the ultimate problem of the shortage of IT professionals and under-represented population of women in the field of IT [4] may be alleviated by increasing opportunities for young women to get involved in IT through sessions such as the tech sessions offered by UC.