News for and about the Internet2 community

[Angela Stark <>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact:
Angela Stark
Internet2
202.803.8996

 

Internet2 and Society of Women Engineers Partner to Expand Gender Diversity Efforts

 

WASHINGTON, May 27, 2015—Internet2 and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) today announced the launch of the SWE@Internet2 community, which provides access to SWE member benefits to 200 women at participating Internet2 higher education member institutions. This effort is part of the Internet2 Gender Diversity Initiative, which seeks to improve gender diversity in the research and education IT and Internet2 communities. The SWE@Internet2 community was announced today at a University of Wisconsin-Madison event hosted by the UW-Madison Office of the CIO and UW Women in Technology (UW-WIT).

 

Through this program, Internet2 will provide SWE memberships for up to 200 individual professional women working in IT, science, math, engineering or related technology fields at higher education member institutions. A formal application process will be established and Internet2 member institutions will have an option to sign up additional SWE members to support the growth of their own gender diversity efforts on campus.  

 

“This partnered program aspires to attract, develop and retain women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to pursue technical leadership roles,” said Internet2’s Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer Florence Hudson, who announced the launch at today’s UW-Madison event. “While women comprise 57 percent of professional occupations in the U.S., they represent just 26 percent of the computing workforce and a mere 6 percent are corporate CIOs. Via the SWE@Internet2 community and the larger Internet2 Gender Diversity Initiative, Internet2 is taking an active step to move the needle on gender diversity in STEM fields.”

 

Benefits of individual membership in SWE include a network of more than 34,000 professionals worldwide; a large variety of professional development programs and resources, many of which are free to members; scholarships, awards and recognitions; discounts on SWE events; access to SWE’s member resources, such as its monthly magazine and career center; leadership opportunities in SWE committees and affinity groups; and much more.

 

“We are thrilled to partner with Internet2 to bring more women into the SWE network and provide them access to our many resources that help women in STEM succeed and advance in their careers as technical professionals and leaders in their organizations,” said SWE Executive Director and CEO Karen Horting, who was also in attendance at today’s launch event.

 

For more information about the SWE@Internet2 community, email .

 

About Internet2
Internet2® is a member-owned advanced technology community founded by the nation's leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 provides a collaborative environment for U.S. research and education organizations to solve common technology challenges, and to develop innovative solutions in support of their educational, research, and community service missions. Internet2 also operates the nation’s largest and fastest, coast-to-coast research and education network, in which the Network Operations Center is powered by Indiana University. Internet2 serves more than 90,000 community anchor institutions, 260 U.S. universities, 65 government agencies, 40 regional and state education networks, 85 leading corporations working with our community and more than 65 national research and education networking partners representing more than 100 countries. Internet2 offices are located in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Denver, Colo.; Emeryville, Calif.; Washington, D.C; and West Hartford, Conn. For more information, visit www.internet2.edu or follow @Internet2 on Twitter.

 

About SWE

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE), founded in 1950, is a not-for-profit educational and service organization. SWE is the driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career aspiration for women. SWE empowers women to succeed and advance in those aspirations and receive the recognition and credit for their life-changing contributions and achievements as engineers and leaders. For more information about the Society please visit www.swe.org or call 312.596.5223.