Spelman College News May 3, 2019 Spelman College Among Four Higher Education Institutions Benefiting from Booking.com Initiative to Support and Advance Women in STEM Spelman College is part of a new scholarship initiative with Booking.com, one of the world’s largest digital travel e-commerce companies, to help bridge the gender-divide within the tech sector. The scholarship initiative is designed to provide women students with the funding needed to advance their education in STEM. The grants will benefit more than 30 undergraduate and postgraduate women studying subjects that include computer and information science, engineering, technology and mathematics in the United States and India. Undergraduate students at Spelman and postgraduate students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, as well as undergraduate students in India at the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology in Patiala and postgraduate students at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore will be eligible for the Booking.com awards. The total grant amount equals €500,000 with more than $205,000 allotted to Spelman. All the scholarships will start in the 2019-2020 academic year. “At a time when technology is critical to global markets and pervasive in our daily lives, we are excited about the opportunities our STEM students will receive via the Booking.com Women in Tech Scholarships,” said Spelman President Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D. “Financial support and career development activities, such as mentoring by Booking.com employees, will help ensure that these students graduate with a competitive edge. Prepared for life and careers as masters of technology, these students will enter the workforce and increase the number of African-American women, who are currently drastically underrepresented in the STEM fields.” According to a 2018 report by global consultant McKinsey, in the United States women make up just 23 percent of the students who take the high school advanced placement computer science exam. In addition, only19 percent of students who earn bachelor degrees in computer and information science are women. Of that number 26 percent go on to enter the computing workforce. This lack of representation is indicative of the under-representation of women in many other regions of the world, which, coupled with a growing shortage of digitally skilled workers, could contribute to challenges in how companies progress within the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Spelman STEM“Technology is one of the key drivers of social change and economic growth today, and the strong under-representation of women studying STEM subjects and participating in the tech workforce threatens to deepen the current social divide and further accentuate gender stereotypes. Our research has shown us that despite changes being made to encourage more women into tech, they still face more challenges in the industry compared with men," said Gillian Tans, chief executive officer of Booking.com. “This is why I believe it is so important to encourage and empower more young women to pursue and advance their tech education and start a tech career. The more women we have engaging with STEM, the greater chance we will have to turn these stereotypes in tech around and make the industry a more welcoming place for people of all backgrounds to thrive.” About Booking.com Established in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com B.V. has grown from a small Dutch start-up to one of the largest travel e-commerce companies in the world. Part of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), Booking.com now employs more than 17,500 employees in more than 200 offices in 70 countries worldwide. With a mission to empower people to experience the world, Booking.com invests in digital technology that helps take the friction out of travel. At Booking.com, we connect travelers with the world's largest selection of incredible places to stay, including everything from apartments, vacation homes, and family-run B&Bs to 5-star luxury resorts, tree houses, and even igloos. The Booking.com website and mobile apps are available in 43 languages, offer over 28 million total reported listings, including more than 5.7 million listings of homes, other unique places to stay, and covers more than 147,000 destinations in 227 countries and territories worldwide. For more information, visit their global media room. About Spelman College Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a leading liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College’s picturesque campus is home to 2,100 students. Spelman is the country's leading producer of Black women who complete Ph.Ds. in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The College’s status is confirmed by U.S. News and World Report, which ranked Spelman No. 51 among all liberal arts colleges and No. 1 among historically Black colleges and universities. The Wall Street Journal ranked the College No. 3, nationally, in terms of student satisfaction. Outstanding alumnae include Children’s Defense Fund Founder Marian Wright Edelman, Starbucks Group President, and COO Rosalind Brewer, former Acting Surgeon General and Spelman’s first alumna President Audrey Forbes Manley, global bioinformatics geneticist Janina Jeff and authors Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones. For more information, visit www.spelman.edu. 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 Honor the ancestors, honor the children. Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/hbculibraryalliance1/ and Twitter at https://twitter.com/HBCULibAlliance Check out "PULSE!" The HBCU Library Alliance's News Source! - https://hbculibraryalliance.wordpress.com/