Berkeley EECS is proud to partner with GoDaddy to fund students for the upcoming Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.
GoDaddy is excited to sponsor UC Berkeley students to attend the Grace Hopper Conference in 2016. In the past two years, GoDaddy has sponsored over 150 students and have hired 23 interns and new grads through our attendance at Grace Hopper. GoDaddy is proud to be one of 13 companies that the Anita Borg Institute identified in its annual list of Top Companies for Women Technologists.
GoDaddy is committed to increasing the number of women in technology and sponsoring students to attend Grace Hopper is one of our initiatives. In 2015, we increased the number of our women interns and new college graduate hires in engineering from 14 percent to 39 percent in both categories. And for 2016, they’re trending to hit 50% women new college graduate hires in engineering. In addition, they were recently added to the Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For and we have several women in technology leadership roles.
We look forward to providing an experience that will motivate and encourage your interest in a computer science career.
Grace Hopper Scholarship Submission Process
Apply through the following link:
https://app.jobvite.com/CompanyJobs/Job.aspx?j=oB3X2fwn
Please provide a resume and a 1–2 page essay on the following questions:
· Why do you want to attend Grace Hopper?
· and why is computer science important to you?
Scholarship Awards and Timing
GoDaddy already purchased the registrations and we will register the students names once they are selected. We will provide monies to assist in covering travel and lodging for each student selected. The student/school will be responsible for booking travel.
Scholarship submissions must be received by Friday, May 13 at midnight. We will review the resume and essay and inform students that have been selected by Wednesday, June 15.
This was an email sent to all Berkeley CS majors. I received it this evening and spent the next hour forgoing a problem set to furiously researching and writing this email (below) back.
To Whom This May Concern:
I am seriously disappointed that Berkeley EECS has decided to partner with GoDaddy for Grace Hopper scholarships. GoDaddy is one of the most notoriously sexist tech companies out there, starting with its strategy to gain popularity based in sexist advertising. Since its initially rocky journey to IPO, GoDaddy has been at a remarkable public relations blitz by paying lip service to the diversity movement and by partnering with the Anita Borg Institute, which is an organization that relies on corporate sponsorships to operate. What I’m trying to say is, lists and news articles can be different from what is being reported on the ground, and a healthy dose of skepticism is needed when a company whose publicity was tied to its offensiveness wants a 180 on its image.
It might be too late to change this partnership, but I would like to see the Berkeley EECS department do much better due diligence the next time around. In a time when diversity in STEM is ever so crucial and achievable, it saddens me that out of all the tech companies in the world, GoDaddy is Berkeley’s chosen partner. We are one of the nation’s most renowned computer science programs; surely, there are far more reputable companies out there (like Twitter, from last year) that would like to fund Berkeley students’ Grace Hopper trips. Of course, it wouldn’t surprise me that GoDaddy offered the most money. But I’d like to think that the EECS department is invested in its students, both for the short term and long term, and being in association with such a controversial company (even allegations of sexism aside) is a bad misstep.
Thank you for your time.
