9 MBHS students win Alabama NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing

Nine Mountain Brook High School students have received the Alabama NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing.

The award — powered by the nonprofit National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) — recognizes students in grades 9-12 who self-identify as women, genderqueer or non-binary for their computing-related achievements and interests, as part of an effort to encourage a diverse range of students to choose careers in technology.

The 2021 Alabama NCWIT winners are:

► Winners: Emily King, Mary Margaret Stephenson

► Honorable Mentions: Elizabeth Chapman, Annya Evans-Martinez, Emma Kao

► Rising Stars: Ivy Cobbs, Reagan Downey, Ella Emblom, Molly Midkiff

“Rhonda Guillory and I are extremely proud of the hard work of these young women,” said Fred Major, MBHS computer and data science teacher. “This is the greatest number of awards Mountain Brook has received and the most in the state of Alabama. The winners range from first-time programmers to multiple-year winners. We hope more and more women will choose to try computer science here at MBHS.”

Award recipients were selected from more than 4,200 applicants in the U.S. and Canada for their leadership and computing experience, computing-related activities, tenacity in the face of barriers to access and plans for post-secondary education.

Each recipient will be inducted into the AiC Community of nearly 20,000 people who self-identify as women, genderqueer, or non-binary and receive access to resources, scholarships and internship opportunities.

The workforce needs young women’s “creativity and unique perspectives to produce technology that is as broad and innovative as the population it serves,” said NCWIT CEO and Co-founder Lucy Sanders.

Find out more at ncwit.org.

– Submitted by Sam Chandler, Mountain Brook Schools; edited for length by Village Living.