OCTC STUDENT AND FACULTY ATTEND STATEWIDE CONFERENCE

Owensboro Community amp; Technical College student, Dani Haws, attended the Kentucky Women in Computing Conference on April 10-11 in Lexington, Kentucky. Haws participated in the poster competition and earned second place honors which included a $50 gift card. She is majoring in Computer amp; Information Technologies. We are so proud of her and her accomplishments. Dani made an extra effort to participate in the poster competition and her efforts paid off. commented Theresa Schmitt, OCTCs CIT Program coordinator. Attending the event and representing OCTC also included Theresa Schmitt, CIT Program Coordinator, Connie Johnson, CIT faculty, and Lorraine Sturgeon, Training/Professional Development Specialist.

According to the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), women comprise only 26% of the technology workforce with numbers declining since the 1980s. Women have turned away from the technology and computer industry at a time when it is seeing its quickest and most significant growth.

For the poster presentation competition, students were charged to create a poster that their college or university could use to recruit females into a computer or information technology major. The posters were on display throughout the duration of the conference and were judged by the originality of the work, applicability to the topic and quality of the presentation.