CS Kickstart
We host a one-week long, CS exploration summer camp for incoming-freshmen women at UC Berkeley.
About CS Kickstart
CS KickStart is a one-week introductory class to computer science. Students learn how to program, meet computer science students and professionals, and are introduced to different areas of computer science. This program targets incoming UC Berkeley students who are curious about computer science and are interested in math, science or engineering. Students do not need to have any prior skills in programming. Our goal is to give them a hands-on experience in programming and to show them the creativity and power of computer science.
Why Does CS Kickstart Exist?
At UC Berkeley, CS is 25% female and EECS is only 20% female. Our program helps close the gender gap by creating a supportive community, providing female role models to participants, and giving resources to allow woman to succeed in the tech industry
Girls are naturally just as interested in computer science as boys, but as they grow up, they are increasingly less likely to pursue tech roles. According to McKinsey, an American worldwide management consulting firm, "tech companies concentrate 66% of their philanthropic funding on K-12 programs, compared to 3% on college-level programs." As a student-run organization, we are passionate about making a difference and seek to reach as many people in order to minimize disparities that exist in the tech industry.
Our Mission
CS KickStart aims to generate more pursuit of technology amongst women and other minority groups to improve the lack of representation and access to the tech industry. We host a week-long summer program that introduces participants to a wide range of industry opportunities, foundational programming concepts, and a supportive community that promotes diversity in tech.
Our Founders
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Colleen Lewis
Colleen is an assistant CS professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She specializes in computer science education and curriculum development. Lewis also researched gender and diversity issues in CS education and how the programming environment shapes perception, learning and goals. Lewis teaches computer science courses as well as a seminar course on computer science education.
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Floraine Berthouzoz
Floraine was a research scientist in the Creative Technologies Lab at Adobe Systems; her research focused on computer graphics and HCI. Her work was aimed towards building tools that made it faster and easier for people to create and visualize high quality media content. Besides her work, she loved to travel—never getting tired of visiting new places, learning new languages, and understanding different cultures
Our Timeline
