Five Poly Students Win Aspirations in Coding Awards

Poly is thrilled to announce that five students received recognition from the National Center for Women and Information Technology's (NCWIT) Aspirations in Coding program. Eliana L.V. ’23, Edith S. ’23, Aria W. ’23, Kaylin Y. ’24, and Sabrina Z. ’23 were all recognized for their achievements in the field of computer science.

The NCWIT is a non-profit community of nearly 1,500 universities, companies, non-profits, and government organizations nationwide working to increase the influential and meaningful participation of girls and women—at the intersections of race/ethnicity, class, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, and other historically marginalized identities—in the field of computing, particularly in terms of innovation and development. 

The NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing (AiC) honors 9th-12th grade women, genderqueer, or non-binary students for their computing-related achievements and interests, and encourages them to pursue their passions. With more than 3,500 applicants this year,  award recipients were selected based on their aptitude and aspirations in technology and computing.

 

“My application discussed my passions in STEM, past projects, and plans for the future. I talked about my positive experiences being on a robotics team in middle school as well as being one of six girls in a 35 student class focused on engineering. Now in high school, I have started an Engineering Club and plan to continue pursuing an education and career-focused on bridging science and engineering,” said Aria. “This award is encouragement to continue pursuing areas of technology, science, and engineering. To me, it is a nod toward the fact that STEM is a largely male-dominated field, but that we are steadily moving to change that.”

Edith and Sabrina's applications both discussed their work at Poly with Girls Who Code, a club that promotes female participation in tech and provides support for students. Kaylin’s application discussed the founding of a non-profit organization, Codergirlz, to teach girls basic coding, website development, animation, and robotics skills. Eliana wrote about how computer science is changing our world, including how AI face recognition bias continues to hurt many communities, but she hopes to design more equitable technology. 

"Women in any stem field are few and far between, making it harder to be recognized for their work and bravery. I want to be the change in that academic field," said Eliana.