News From ACM-W Chapters

Barb Ericson at Georgia Tech,  ACM-W’s friend, started “Project Rise Up 4 CS” 4 years ago to help more African-American students pass the Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science (CS) A exam. The number of African-Americans passing the exam in Georgia has been increasing since the project began. Last year Barb started “Sisters Rise Up 4 CS” to help more women pass the AP CS A exam. “Sisters Rise Up 4 CS” offers help sessions led by undergraduate students.  There are two types of help sessions:  twice-a-week one-hour webinars and once-a-month, three-hour in-person sessions at a local college or university.  The undergraduate students serve as near-peer role models to help increase the participants’ sense of belonging in computing.  The webinars are intended to encourage practice and address misconceptions.  The in-person help sessions allow students to feel that they belong at their local college or university in computer science.

Barb wants to expand “Sisters Rise Up 4 CS” to more colleges and universities.  The project provides a perfect ACM-W Chapters outreach project opportunity.  Barb created a free e-book to help both the undergraduate students lead the webinars as well as the high school students prepare for the Java-based AP exam.

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