Communities for Women in EE&CS
printf(“We love women in STEM!\n”);
Since entering UC Berkeley, I’ve been fortunate to be part of a few communities supporting ✨women in computer science✨!
Check these out - you can also find them on STAR.berkeley.edu:
CS Kickstart - introductory one week-long program for incoming women interested in computer science @ UC Berkeley. It was an overnight stay program with housing and food covered. Incoming students are invited to apply and the deadline is typically in May/June. I got to attend Figma workshops, tour a tech company in SF, and go to an Oakland A’s game!
Association of Women in EE&CS (AWE) - open to all. Fall semesters are always super AWE-some with visits from industry partners (yes free Chipotle and networking!)
Society of Women Engineers (SWE) - open to all. Similar to AWE, SWE has SWEet meetings and events to build community for women in engineering. You can get involved by joining committees that give back through hosting K-12 events. There are also networking events with industry like EWI.
Girls Who Code (GWC) - open to all. Also has great community and industry events. We do a fun little 30-day Leetcode challenge as well.
CS Scholars - apply through the EECS department when you are a freshman. I got to go to industry field trips to Microsoft and Genentech.
All of these organizations have allowed me to meet so many amazing women in CS. The best part is you can join anytime – it’s never too late. Just show up to a general meeting! You can find info on their websites or Instagrams.
print(“Fun fact: My favorite programming languages are Python and C”)