Drexel University and TechGirlz Team to Connect Middle School Girls with Technology

PHILADELPHIA, April 11, 2018 -- Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business and TechGirlz today announced a wide-ranging partnership designed to expand the number of middle school girls receiving technology instruction. This collaboration is part of the recently announced TechGirlz 20k for 2020 campaign, in which the organization seeks to set 20,000 girls on The Path to a technology career over the next two years.

“As leaders in preparing both women and men for rewarding tech careers, we at Drexel are thrilled to partner with TechGirlz in empowering and preparing young girls to be good students and eventually play a critical role in meeting society's technology needs,” said John Fry, Drexel's president.

As part of the partnership, TechGirlz and LeBow College will collaborate on initiatives designed to advance girls’ understanding of technology, such as workshops, research studies and summer camps. The first output from this collaboration was a TechGirlz TechShop focused on text mining and data analysis with LeBow College’s Business Analytics Solutions Center. This three-hour session taught local middle school girls how to use text mining software to represent data three dimensionally and analyze sentiment.

“Girls are eager to learn about the world around them and how they can impact it using technology,” said TechGirlz CEO and founder Tracey Welson-Rossman. “Drexel has been a wonderful partner to TechGirlz and this partnership will help our girls visualize and move forward on The Path from middle school on through college towards a career in technology. Together today, we can positively influence the number of women in technology tomorrow.”

TechGirlz recently celebrated having reached 10,000 girls through its program. TechGirlz is unique for its custom built TechShopz that can be taught by volunteer instructors throughout the world. Each course is designed to match girls’ stated desires for compelling, challenging, and creative technology-related instruction. To reflect the demands of the modern tech-enabled workforce, subjects range far beyond coding to include courses on gaming, design, robotics, and more.

To accelerate its mission of inspiring girls and diversifying America’s technology workforce, TechGirlz has launched a $1 million capital campaign in support of its goal to reach 20,000 more middle school girls by 2020. To learn more about TechGirlz and its program, or to contribute to the 20K by 2020 campaign, please visit http://www.techgirlz.org.

About Drexel University
Drexel is a nationally-ranked, comprehensive research university recognized for its focus on experiential learning through cooperative education, its commitment to cutting-edge academic technology and its growing enterprise of use-inspired research. With more than 24,000 students, Drexel is one of the nation’s largest private universities. LeBow College of Business integrates Drexel University's technological prominence with experience-based education to develop world-class leaders and advance knowledge through research. Drexel LeBow boasts a diverse global student population of nearly 4,000 undergraduate, graduate and PhD students representing more than 60 countries, as well as 120 full-time faculty members. The College is accredited by AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

About TechGirlz
TechGirlz is a nonprofit that fosters a love for technology in middle school girls. The free, open source technology courses can be used by anyone to inspire curiosity, impart confidence and build community as the foundation for the application of technology throughout a girl’s career and life. TechShopz courses have been taught by volunteer instructors in ten states and four countries to more than 5,000 girls. To learn more or how to participate, please visit http://www.techgirlz.org/.

Press Contact:
Michael Azzano
Cosmo PR for TechGirlz
415-596-1978
[email protected]