Women+ in Computer Science (WiCS+)!
Who We Are
Welcome to WiCS+! We are a group of strong CS-oriented women with a goal to cultivate a community of women in tech and encourage women to pursue technology through outreach, academic initiatives, competitions, and social events.
Why is WICS+ important?
The LASA Women+ in Computer Science club recently conducted a survey to understand why women and other minorities do not pursue computer science! Here are the results based on the responses from 50 high schoolers at LASA:
Joining WiCS+ will allow you to join an environment that is inclusive and supportive, and debunks the theory that computer science is an unnecessarily difficult and boring subject!
What are we going to do this year?
This year, we are excited to host many events and fun meetings including lots of speakers, presentations, competition practice, game show days, coding practice, study sessions, and more! We'll also be a part of the larger LasaCS club, so events that they host will be available to attend and vice versa (i.e. LasaCS clubs are welcome at WiCS+ events).
Calendar
How do I stay updated/join the club?
The methods of communication we will be using are email and Slack! Click here to join. The link to our WiCS+ Slack is lasawics2020-2021.slack.com. Please join the Slack as we'll be posting updates, messages, and Zoom links there. You could also get in touch with us by filling out the contact form below (our email is lasawics@gmail.com). Lastly, if you have any questions, you can always talk to or contact any of the leaders (I promise, we don't bite)!
If you haven't already, make sure to fill out this google form in order to be on the WiCS+ official member list.
Who are the leaders this year?
Aurna Mukherjee
President
Aurna is a junior at Liberal Arts and Science Academy and she is passionate about bridging the gender gap in computer science. From taking her first computer science class in freshman year, she was surprised by the smaller proportion of women and other minorities in the class, and has been involved with WiCS+ since. In the summer of sophomore year, she attended the camp Techgirls where she met people from across the world interested in STEM, which helped her learn about the lack of accessibility to tech on a broader scale. She also enjoys singing, reading, volunteering, and eating apples with peanut butter in her spare time!
Aishwarya Sreenivasan
Vice President
Aishwarya is a senior at LASA. She has been taking computer science classes for many years and having witnessed the glaring lack of representation, she is devoted to increasing diversity in tech. Her fields of interest include cybersecurity, cryptography, and data science. She is particularly passionate about the intersection between tech and environmental sustainability and hopes to pursue a career in computational sustainability. Her hobbies include hiking, reading, and learning about the world around her.
Julia Ding
Communications Chair
Julia is a high school senior from Austin, Texas interested in all things computer science and mathematics-related. She’s passionate about bridging educational and gender gaps and enjoys giving back to the community! In her free time, she enjoy playing the cello, puzzling out fun math problems, competing in hackathons, and making bad puns.
Arden Randazzo
Secretary
Arden is a junior at LASA High School and their favorite subject is computer science. Since falling in love with the subject in 8th grade, they've become passionate about making a space for gender minorities in STEM, space for women and for genderqueer people. Arden has taken a variety of computer science classes, and has found their favorite subject is Machine Learning. Arden is in Cyberpatriot, plays soccer, and enjoys art.
Nancy Zhang
Event Planner
Nancy Zhang is a Senior at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy. She started learning about computer science in middle school, where it was more robotics than programming. Then for her first year in LASA, she got into programming and CS from the clubs and classes. The specific fields of CS that she loves are AI VR and AR. Another one would be Cybersecurity or just the internet. In the future, she would love to code and create her own mini-bots on the computer of her choice. Besides just the CS field, Nancy also enjoys building puzzles, Legos, and all sorts of DIYs.
