New Program Recruits African-American Girls to Computer Science
The computing workforce continues to grow, but women of color remain largely underrepresented. Tuskegee University recently announced a $1.3 million grant program funded by the National Science Foundation that aims to prepare African-American girls in Alabama for careers in computer science.
The program is called Black Girls from Alabama for Computing. It is a collaboration between Tuskegee, the University of Alabama and Oakland University. The project is open to African-American high school girls who enroll in AP Computer Science. The bulk of it takes place during the summer, when students will split time between the University of Alabama and Tuskegee University. They will learn about careers in computing and prepare for AP computer science.
African-American women make up about 3% of the nation’s computing workforce. Mohammed Qazi, a professor at Tuskegee who helps lead the new project, says diversity is important. “It’s all about diversity of thought,” he says, “bringing different perspectives when one is solving a problem.” Qazi says there is a tremendous need for computer scientists in the U.S. He hopes to create a pipeline to recruit more minority girls to the field. The National Science Foundation will fund the program for three years.
Florida’s 6-week abortion ban will have a ‘snowball effect’ on residents across the South
Abortion rights advocates say the ban will likely force many to travel farther for abortion care and endure pregnancy and childbirth against their will.
Attitudes among Alabama lawmakers softening on Medicaid expansion
Alabama is one of ten states which has not expanded Medicaid. Republican leaders have pushed back against the idea for years.
Birmingham is 3rd worst in the Southeast for ozone pollution, new report says
The American Lung Association's "State of the Air" report shows some metro areas in the Gulf States continue to have poor air quality.
Why haven’t Kansas and Alabama — among other holdouts — expanded access to Medicaid?
Only 10 states have not joined the federal program that expands Medicaid to people who are still in the "coverage gap" for health care
Once praised, settlement to help sickened BP oil spill workers leaves most with nearly nothing
Thousands of ordinary people who helped clean up after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico say they got sick. A court settlement was supposed to help compensate them, but it hasn’t turned out as expected.
Q&A: How harm reduction can help mitigate the opioid crisis
Maia Szalavitz discusses harm reduction's effectiveness against drug addiction, how punitive policies can hurt people who need pain medication and more.
