Penn WiCS

ADVOCACY

Do you support the cause of empowering minority groups to gain confidence in Computer Science? The best way to support us is by joining us in our advocacy projects, campaigns and events. Here are some of our past initiatives:

The % Project
A visual campaign that highlights statistics gathered from the WiCS x Computer Science Department Census by decorating their Facebook profile pictures with a statistic.

CIS Diversity Summit
The first summit was held in Spring 2018 to bring together all members of the CIS community to discuss how we can work together to create a more diverse, inclusive, and supportive environment. Attended by students / TAs, CIS faculty and diversity organizations, challenges and concerns were addressed at roundtable discussions over lunch.

COMMUNITY

This Community committee is focused on creating a strong community for all students who support the advancement of women in computer science. We host social events almost every month, with fun activities like planting succulents and decorating cookies. Our committee also makes important announcements at the start of every event, so make sure to swing by to hear about upcoming WiCS events! Also, come by our study sessions, which we hold every few weeks, and grab some free food before cramming that last-minute CIS assignment.

EDUCATION

The goal of the Education and Hackathon committee is to reach out to more students who support women in the Penn community and get them interested in tech, inspire them to keep learning, and help them achieve their fullest potential. We organize the WiCS Speaker Series, which brings inspirational women and their allies in tech to campus to chat with students in an open and informal setting, as well as WiCS Career Panels, which help women and their allies who are younger or new to the field learn from those who have more experience. We also organize WiCS Workshops to teach women and their allies core technical skills that are not always taught in class.

FEMMEHACKS

WiCS holds an annual collegiate hackathon, FemmeHacks, that draws over 200 women and their allies from the Philadelphia area, many of whom are beginners to coding and gain their first technical project experiences at the event! Our goal is to inspire, teach, and empower women and their allies in the Philly tech community. We believe that together we can learn, build cool projects, and create a community of technical women and their supporters in the field.

See more information about FemmeHacks here, and follow our WiCS and FemmeHacks Facebook pages to stay updated!

MENTORSHIP

The mentorship program matches every Freshman and Sophomore WiCS member with an older WiCS member. The mentor helps the mentee with class selection, internship searches, moral support, academic advice, and generally becomes a much-needed, loving guide to achieving success in CS. Our mentors also hold “office hours” where any student (not necessarily a declared CS major) can come in and chat over coffee and donuts, ask any questions they have, and make friends in the process.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

WiCS Professional Development works with corporate and academic partners to host events and programs for WiCS members. We typically host a broad range of events focusing on recruiting and academic development. Our most popular events include Tech Talks, information sessions, casual coffee chats, and our biannual WiCS Tech Trek to NYC.

For more information about partnership with WiCS, email pennwics@gmail.com

WELLNESS

The wellness committee addresses the importance of wellness and how we can provide support for our fellow women and their allies studying computer science. Past projects include organize the Buddy system, setting up check-ins for upperclassmen with underclassmen, and creating wellness presentation videos in introductory CIS courses that spread awareness about wellness resources.