Silicon Valley Business Journal January 2018 Google to expand its Howard West program, add more partnerships with historically black schools Google<http://companies.bizjournals.com/profile/google/100651/> will expand its on-campus program with Howard University while adding students from more colleges in the fall. The Mountain View-based search giant will open its Howard West program to 100 students from Howard as well as other historically black universities, according to a USA Today<https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/01/30/exclusive-google-expands-howard-west-train-more-black-coders/1077193001/> report Tuesday. It is also extending the length of the program to a full academic year. In the program's launch last summer<https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2017/06/08/howard-university-google-mountain-view.html>, the company hosted 26 Howard University students on its campus for 12 weeks of coding education taught by senior Google engineers and Howard faculty. The campus officially opened last June at the Googleplex headquarters at 1600 Amphitheater Parkway in Mountain View. Google is grappling with complaints from all sides about workforce diversity, and the Howard West program was established as a part of the company's efforts to hire more women and minorities to its mostly white and Asian male workforce. The company is facing an investigation<https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2018/01/04/google-gender-pay-discrimination-lawsuit-expands.html> by the Department of Labor and has been the subject of multiple lawsuits for allegedly paying women less than men. Most recently, Google employees are also reportedly accusing coworkers of inciting outsiders to harass minority employees, according to a Wired report last week.<https://www.wired.com/story/the-dirty-war-over-diversity-inside-google/> At the same time, Google is being sued by former engineer James Damore, who says the company discriminates against white men and conservatives like him. Four out of 14 Howard West students who applied for software engineering internships are returning to Google this summer, USA Today reported. Some students reported a "crushing load" of assignments, which the report correlated to real-world experience at the company. Howard Sueing, a Google employee and an instructor in the Howard West program, told USA Today that, prior to the program, he experienced a "daily dose of culture shock" as a member of the company's African American employee base. Black employees make up just 2 percent of Google's overall workforce. Howard officials initially said that they expect 740 students to have completed the program in the next five years. Bonita Stewart<https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/search/results?q=Bonita%20Stewart>, Google's vice president of global partnerships built the Howard West program alongside Howard University President Wayne Frederick. Stewart last year called Howard West the "centerpiece" of Google's efforts to bolster its hiring of African American software engineers and an expansion of its relationship with historically black colleges. "For us, it is an opportunity to ensure that we are building a pipeline and more importantly, stimulating the right partnerships to drive change," Stewart told USA Today. More than a third of African American students with computer science degrees come from historically black colleges like Howard University, and yet hardly find jobs in Silicon Valley, according the report. Lauren Clayton, a 20-year-old computer science student, told USA Today that she was one of the four tapped to return for a software engineering internship. "It gave me an inside look at what their lives are like, the things they work on, the technology they use," the report states. "I was really inspired to work hard to get where their engineers are today." SANDRA M. PHOENIX HBCU Library Alliance Executive Director Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library 111 James P. Brawley Drive SW Atlanta, GA 30314 404-978-2118 (office) 404-702-5854 (cell) http://www.hbculibraries.org/ sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org%3cmailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org>> Honor the ancestors, honor the children. Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hbculibraryalliance1/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/HBCULibAlliance Check out "PULSE!" The HBCU Library Alliance's News Source! - https://hbculibraryalliance.wordpress.com/