Nearly 90 female high school students will visit the School of Information Studies for an overnight retreat dedicated to encouraging a stronger female presence in the technology field.

This year’s third annual IT Girls retreat will take place on Sunday and will go overnight into Monday. The retreat is designed to motivate female high school students to pursue technology. Those registered to attend will be representing more than 45 high schools mainly from the New York City, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia areas, said Dori Farah, graduate recruitment manager for the iSchool, in an email.

Fatma NGom, who attended a previous retreat when she was a senior in high school, said the event was “eye-opening.” Now a sophomore studying information management and technology in the iSchool, she will be returning to the retreat as a mentor.

“For some reason as I looked at the students on stage that night, I knew someday I would be up there, too, encouraging and advocating for young girls and ladies,” NGom said.

NGom said she became inspired by the retreat when she learned how technology can make it easier to circulate information used to help foreign students and solve international issues in less-developed areas.

“This truly sparked my attention and interest,” NGom said. “My goal in life is to not only make a difference in America, but in my home country Senegal, located in West Africa.”

The retreat will include a workshop with an iSchool professor and students, a sleepover in on-campus residence halls with current iSchool female students and participation in fall reception and other activities, Farah said.

The will also be a celebration dinner, which NGom recalled as her fondest memory of the retreat. “There were beautiful and fun performances, and we got a lot of encouragement and advice from upperclass women in SU studying (information management and technology),” NGom said.

The retreat is sponsored by alumni and friends of the iSchool, along with JPMorgan Chase & Co., Farah said. Additionally, corporate representatives from Facebook, SendGrid, Splunk, BDO Consulting and SSSe Inc. are attending to help facilitate portions of the retreat as industry influencers, she added.

Through the retreat, Farah said she hopes to help with the problem of inadequate representation of women in the technology field.

“The U.S. absolutely needs more women in tech. According to the National Center for Women in Information Technology, women earn 57 percent of all undergraduate degrees in the U.S., but only 18 percent of all computer and information science degree recipients are female,” Farah said.

Heather Pyle, a senior in the iSchool and president of Women in Information Technology, said the retreat is a larger part of the iSchool’s initiative to increase female enrollment. The iSchool also hosts Girls Are IT in collaboration with The Girl Scouts, which reaches out to middle school-age girls in Central New York.

In her roles as a student mentor and overnight hostess for current IT Girls, NGom said she hopes to instill confidence in young ladies looking to enter the technology field.

“I hope to inspire other women to not let intimidation or negativity to stop them from stepping out of their comfort zone,” NGom said. “I hope to continue to mentor young ladies, and increase the amount of women in the technology field.”

Published on November 7, 2013 at 1:27 am

Contact Lydia: lawilson@syr.edu