Mission Statement
Mission
MAGIC will focus on providing middle and high school girls, who are seriously considering studying a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics) area, with the knowledge of tools and resources available to help them start down the STEM path successfully. This will be done during the specified mentorship period, with the aid of a female mentor who is already established in a STEM-related career.
Vision
Be a world class resource for guiding and assisting young women seriously considering studying one or more Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) areas.
Description
The number of girls entering the computing and high tech arena is continuing to drop, with women comprising only about 28% of the technology workforce today. Furthermore, the number of girls dropping out from computing/technology, in college, is significant.
This is a serious issue, and recognized as such by many. It is also universally accepted that this shortage of women in technology is not due to a lack of talent, but due to a plethora of discouraging factors that exist in our society today.
While there are many grassroots efforts to address this problem, both as ongoing activities as well as one-time seminars and conferences, information about this strong support is not widely available. Additionally, this support is limited to certain areas in the country and/or certain segments of the population.
What is needed is a mentorship program throughout the country, available to everyone. MAGIC (More Active Girls In Computing) aims to be such a program. We believe that we need to start with middle school girls, and foster in them a positive attitude towards computing, since the high school level might be too late.
MAGIC is run by women with careers in technology, for middle and high school girls. Mentorship would be on both technical and personal subjects, including work/life balance, role of girls in our society and how that is changing, how to avoid the technology stereotype, etc.
MAGIC focuses specifically on providing mentorship to middle and high school girls on a nation-wide basis. We strongly believe that a mentorship program dedicated to these girls is necessary to address the problem of decreasing participation of women in the technology workforce today.
