05/22/2023
Just because every step of your future isn't mapped out by your first day of college doesn't mean you won't succeed. Monse Castillo shares the story of how she eventually found her way to computer science — and the discoveries about academics, her university community, and herself that she made along the way.
05/05/2023
The best way to understand the shape and power of Break Through Tech’s work is to hear from the people who are part of it — from the young women participating in our innovative programs, to the leaders who host those programs inside their organizations and the team members who run our programs in cities around the country and online. Meet Chu Huang, director of Break Through Tech AI at MIT, a collaboration with MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, home to one of the world’s top-ranked computer science programs and pioneers of breakthrough research in computing and artificial intelligence. Now entering its second year at this location, the program serves diverse undergraduate women and non-binary students from across Greater Boston; between the thriving and historic academic presence in the city and the dozens of startups emerging, it’s a place with lots of students where the tech landscape is evolving every day.
04/03/2023
More than 280,000 technology workers have lost their jobs since the start of 2022—and the data shows you’re more likely to have been laid off if you’re a woman.
03/20/2023
For all the talk of the need for more women in tech, data suggests that meaningfully moving the needle requires better innovation. Thirty-five years ago, women earned roughly a third of computer science degrees. By 2016, that share had fallen to less than 20 percent. Although that number appears to have marked the bottom—in 2021 women were earning 22 percent of computing degrees—closing the gender gap in tech, especially for women of color, still has a long way to go.
03/16/2023
Tomi Babalola could have been your dentist (and would not have been happy about it). But thanks to some experimentation with computer science, Tomi found a career path that represented an unexpected calling.
03/10/2023
Break Through Tech’s AI program —which spans NYC, LA, Boston, and which is available virtually for students outside those regions — helps college women and nonbinary students gain the skills and build the portfolios they need to better prepare them to secure jobs in the fastest-growing areas of tech: data science, machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI). Particularly for Black, Latina, Indigenous, low-income, first-generation, and other marginalized communities, the barriers to entering AI loom large. We are here to change that.
02/27/2023
Sprinternships™ are paid micro internships that represent an innovative approach to the persistent lack of gender diversity in the tech sector. The program bridges the gap between college and careers for a racially and economically diverse group of undergraduate women and non-binary students, who face unique barriers to entry into this fast-growing field.
02/24/2023
Break Through Tech’s Sprinternships offer women and minority groups short-term opportunities for professional experience in tech.
02/14/2023
Two dominant narratives are circulating about the tech industry. One is that massive layoffs are affecting the entire industry, and the other is that the people getting laid off are disproportionately women and people of color. The first is overstated; the second is a serious problem that requires long overdue action.
02/13/2023
During winter break, fifty-three George Mason students participated in three-week micro-internships via Break Through Tech DC’s Sprinternship program.