Illuminating the Computing Pathway for Women in Mississippi

The NSF INCLUDES Mississippi Alliance for Women in Computing (MSAWC) strives to: generate interest and participation of women in computing; improve recruitment and retention rates of women in undergraduate computing majors; and help post-secondary women make a transition to the computing workforce. Activities designed to engage girls and young women with computing, emphasizing computational thinking and cybersecurity knowledge and awareness, and to illuminate a pathway forward are hosted and facilitated through Alliance partnerships. The authors will describe a project-based approach to facilitating learning among K-12 students. By engaging students at an early age, we believe we can promote the development of selfefficacy in computing before adolescent opinions are formed that may discourage girls from seeking curricular or co-curricular experiences in computing. Further, we will describe how the MSAWC is illuminating the path for girls and women in the state, to engage them with computing and to influence their persistence on the computing pathway through college and into the workforce, using collective impact strategy.