Student Union
- By Julie Taboh
Innovative Program Empowers Female Students in Technology
Jacqueline Deprey says she’s always been a bit of a tomboy.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that she’s been drawn to a field that typically attracts more men than women.
Deprey’s love of computer science in particular was realized in high school when one of her teachers recognized her talent and drew her attention to it.
“I don’t know if it’s because I was good at it, that I enjoyed it, or if it was vice versa, but she really was the first one to point out this passion of mine, and the more computer science classes I took, the more I kind of fell in love with it,” she said.
Deprey said she especially enjoys working on projects that can be applied to the real world.
“And so I found that that tied in nicely with my side love for business, since in computer science we learn, what are the best ways to collect data to organize it? What are the fastest algorithms to sort it?” she said.
Deprey is now a senior at the University of Maryland where she’s double majoring in computer science, and operations management and business analytics.
Hidden figures
Deprey said she credits much of her success to a collaboration between her school and AnitaB.Org, a global nonprofit that’s helping advance women in technology.
Stephanie Rodriguez, vice president of policy and engagement for the organization, works with the university and 14 other institutions on an annual basis through a project they call BRAID.
“It stands for Building, Recruiting and Inclusion and Diversity,” Rodriguez said. “And it really focuses on a few strategies that leaders in undergraduate computer science departments can take to build more inclusive campuses.”
What started as a small group of women online in the early days of the internet has grown into a coalition of millions of women around the world, Rodriquez said.
The organization’s flagship event is the annual Grace Hopper Celebration, which is the world’s largest gathering of women in technology.
Deprey was one of more than 26,000 people attending the celebration in Florida last year.
“Through attending that conference, I think I was able to really recognize this passion in me and to know that there are other people who are fighting the same fight, who are also striving for equality,” Deprey said.
The opportunity also provided her with motivation, she said, to pursue her academic and professional career.
It was her second time at the conference.
Women technologists
“The first time, I was captivated by how many other women technologists were there, and it was truly inspiring to see the magnitude that was women in computing,” she said.
“Even if on a day-to-day I might have felt a little bit alone, just to have that support and know that these other women were fighting for the same things that I was, even if they weren’t always present or within sight of my support, was truly inspiring.”
It is not unusual for women like Deprey to feel that sense of isolation.
Women and minorities pursuing computer science degrees often feel alone in a field that is overwhelmingly dominated by men. While about 60 percent of all 2017 bachelor’s degree recipients in the U.S. were women, females made up only about 20 percent of computer and information science bachelor’s degree recipients, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT).
Jan Plane, a faculty member in the computer science department, is director of the Maryland Center for Women in Computing at the university.
A large part of her job is coordinating that needed support.
“We were working as a small organization, the Center for Women, trying to improve the culture for the women that are here,” Plane said. “And what BRAID did was bring a more national and upper-level administration emphasis to it. ... With having our chair involved, the data we were able to collect and the programs we were able to do, [it] just grew at an exponential rate.”
“We have increased since 2014, when we had around 300 women in our computer science program, to now 738 who are majoring in computer science,” she said. “Women need to feel empowered to do whichever kind of job they want to do. When they are such an underrepresented minority, women tend to shy away from these fields.”
Plane emphasized that in today’s job market, diversity is more important than ever.
“Financially, for the global economy, we need more people who are technologically educated, because there’s a lot of jobs, they’re very good jobs, and they also influence the design of things that are coming. And if women are not involved, it’s not going to represent them,” she said.
Plane also noted that research has shown “that diverse teams make the best products, and if not all voices are heard, then we’re not going to get the best products.”
Deprey agrees.
“I think by really trying to promote minority groups and giving them a seat at this table like BRAID has done with the University of Maryland, we’re able to take advantage of all of our different perspectives and really see what technology is capable of. And I’m really excited to be a part of that feature,” she said.
After graduating this summer, Deprey plans to move to New York City, where she will start in a full-time software engineering position with the file-hosting service Dropbox.
See all News Updates of the Day
- By VOA News
International students have options to pay for grad school
U.S. News & World Report tackles the challenges of paying for grad school as an international student with this story giving tips on paying for school. Read the full story here. (August 2024)
- By Tracy Liu
Economics, tensions blamed for Chinese students shifting from US to Australia, Britain
U.S. universities are welcoming international students as the academic year begins. But while the total number of foreign students is steadily growing, the top sending country, China, is showing signs of leveling out or shrinking.
Industry analysts say the negative trend is mainly due to higher costs amid China’s struggling economy, with a growing number of students going to less expensive countries like Australia and Britain, and tense ties between Washington and Beijing.
The number of foreign students studying in the U.S. in 2022-23 passed 1 million for the first time since the COVID pandemic, said Open Doors, an information resource on international students and scholars.
While the U.S. saw a nearly 12% total increase year-on-year for that period, the number of international students from China, its top source, fell by 0.2% to 289,526.
That’s 600 fewer students than the 2021-22 academic year, when their numbers dropped by nearly 9%. The COVID pandemic saw Chinese student numbers drop in 2020-21 by nearly 15%, in line with the world total drop.
While it’s not yet clear if the drop is a leveling out or a fluctuating decline, analysts say China’s struggling economy and the high cost of studying in the U.S. are the main reasons for the fall in student numbers.
Vincent Chen, a Chinese study abroad consultant based in Shanghai, said although most of his clients are still interested in studying in the U.S., there is a clear downward trend, while applicants for Anglophone universities in Australia and Britain have been increasing.
"If you just want to go abroad, a one-year master's degree in the U.K. is much cheaper,” Chen said. “Many people can't afford to study in the U.S., so they have to settle for the next best thing."
Data from the nonprofit U.S. group College Board Research shows that in the 2023-24 academic year, the average tuition and fees for a U.S. private college four-year education increased 4% to $41,540 compared with the previous academic year.
The British Council said three to four years of undergraduate tuition in Britain starts as low as $15,000.
The number of Chinese students in Britain was 154,260 in 2022-23, according to the U.K. Higher Education Statistics Agency, HESA, up from 121,145 in the 2018/19 academic year.
Australia’s Home Affairs office said in the 2023-24 program year, China was the top source foreign country for new student visa grants at 43,389, up slightly (1.5%) from the previous year.
Chen said Chinese state media's negative portrayal of the United States and concerns about discrimination have also contributed to the shift.
Bruce Zhang, a Chinese citizen who received his master's degree in Europe after studying in China, told VOA Mandarin he had such an incident occur to him after he was admitted to a U.S. university’s Ph.D. program.
When he entered Boston's Logan International Airport last year, Zhang said customs officers questioned him for more than an hour about his research, and if it had any links to the military, and took his computer and mobile phone for examination.
"Fortunately, I had heard that U.S. customs might be stringent in inspecting Chinese students, so I had relatively few study-related data and documents on my personal computer," he said.
Zhang was allowed to enter the U.S. for his studies in materials science, but the questioning left him so rattled that he has encouraged other Chinese to study elsewhere.
Cui Kai, a study abroad consultant in Massachusetts told VOA Mandarin that experiences like Zhang’s or worse happen for a reason.
"Students who were questioned or their visas were revoked at the customs are usually those who completed their undergraduate studies in China and come to the U.S. for a master's or doctoral degree in a sensitive major," said Cui.
Former President Donald Trump signed Proclamation 10043 in June 2020, prohibiting visas for any Chinese student who “has been employed by, studied at, or conducted research at or on behalf of, an entity in the PRC that implements or supports the PRC's “military-civil fusion strategy.”
The U.S. says China has been using students and scholars to gain access to key technology and, under Proclamation 10043, revoked more than 1,000 visas issued to Chinese nationals and has denied thousands more.
Critics say the policy is costly to the U.S. and is encouraging Chinese students to look to European and other universities.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
- By VOA News
Duolingo report details the reality of Gen Z international students
A report by Duolingo takes a look at the experiences of Gen Z international students studying in the U.S., Australia and the U.K, The Pie reports.
The report, the site says, debunks "characterizations of them as 'tech-obsessed, attention-deficit and self-centered'" and highlights "their emerging role in shaping global politics and economics."
Read the full story here. (August 2024)
- By VOA News
School with the lowest costs for international students
U.S. News & World Report crunched the numbers and came up with a list of 20 U.S. colleges and universities with annual total costs at or below $20,184. Check out these best bargains for international students here. (August 2024)
- By VOA News
How to make the most of schools' international student services
U.S. colleges and universities offer a variety of services for international students.
U.S. News & World Report takes a look at them and details how to best use them. Read the article here. (June 2024)
