Recently I switched my major from Psychology to Information Technology. I made this decision rather briskly and mostly based off of feedback and persuasion I had received from others. Although I loved studying Psychology, I did not see myself having a successful future using it in the workforce. On the other side of the spectrum, the popularity and need for individuals in Information Technology (IT) and Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT) is growing on a daily basis. I think technology is a great field to study and obtain a career in because technology is not going away, it is developing more and more each day and it is going to continue to impact our daily lives. Because I am so new to this field, I thought it would be a good idea for me to learn more about it through extracurricular activities like clubs, and that is how I heard about WISE. WISE is a FSU club specifically for women in technology that focuses on peer mentoring and professional development. I think WISE is a great organization to be a part of because it inspires women who have a common interest to feed that interest in one another.

Everyone knows that technology plays a very important role in our lives, but by joining WISE I plan to gain an understanding of why it has such a dominant role in our developing society, and how I, as a woman (the inferior, in this field), can contribute to its development in my future endeavors. As the number of women studying IT and ICT continues to grow, it is important that they receive the encouragement and information they need, so they can have prospering careers in their future. Due to my new-found interest and submersion into this field, the research question I am determined to answer is; What women in the Information Technology and Information, Communications, and Technology majors can gain from being a part of WISE?

To achieve my goal of understanding what women majoring in IT and ICT can gain from being a part of WISE, I plan to attend all of the WISE meetings. These consists of general body meetings, lectures from guest speakers that are given by women who are experts in these fields, and conferences where members receive mentoring and professional development opportunities. For my interview, I plan to contact one of the experienced women who speaks at the guest lectures or someone on the Executive Board of the club. Additionally, because of the more recent popularity in female empowerment, there are loads of resources (whether it be articles, interviews, polls, documentaries, educational videos) from reliable sources relating to why more women should be in the IT, ICT, and Computer Science (CS) fields that I plan to use throughout this project.