Announcing to the Group

We're initiating a newsletter to keep the group informed of upcoming events. If you'd like to post to the blog, contact us so we can set up the account. If you want to add something to the newsletter, email cisters AT cis.udel.edu with the subject line starting with "NEWSLETTER".

Summary of the UD Women's Leadership Series

I attended the Women's Leadership Series session called "Overcoming Your Fear of Public Speaking". Here is the information that I found most interesting.

The Oral Communication Fellows are a new resource for you to use if you have trouble with public speaking. You can make an appointment with them. More information

There is a performance/arousal curve. You need to have some arousal (anxiety) to perform your best.

Tips Before Your Presentation:

• Practice, practice, PRACTICE!
  
• Put yourself in the shoes of your audience. WII-FM: "What's in it for me?"
  
• Powerpoint slides should contain no more than 4 colors/slide and titles should be around 44 points.
  

Tips for During Your Presentation:

• Take a deep breath before starting
  
• Speak slowly, which will give you time to think of what you're saying next (You're not speaking as slowly as you think you are.)
  
• Gestures help you get rid of extra energy
  
• Write hints on your outline about transitions or something to ease your anxiety
  
• Pull your hair back if you're prone to play with your hair during the presentation
  
• Repeat startling points
  
• Ask the audience questions, pause, and get a response
  
• Roll your shoulders back to make sure you're standing up straight
  

GHC: Deadline Extension

The Deadline for Submissions to Grace Hopper has been extended to March 22.

Women's leadership series at UDel

http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2006/mar/wls030606.html

Sounds interesting!

Poll: Scheduling Events

We want to figure out ideal times for our meetings. We have created a poll to help us find good times to have meetings. Please check all available times that you may be available for a meeting. Don't worry, this is not binding. We just want to get an idea of when people are available.

To vote:
Availability for CISters Event

You can also go directly to the current results without voting:

Results: Availability for CISters Event

Spring'06 Semester Kickoff Overview

The Spring Kickoff was held on February 23, 2006. 6 undergraduate students, 7 graduate students and 3 faculty members attended the meeting. We had a great discussion in a few main areas where CISters would like to place emphasis this semester and the coming academic year. And there were delicious snacks to help get us thinking! Here's an overview of the main areas we discussed.

Regular meetings
Preferred time for those present is Thursday, afternoon or evenings. We also decided to have a Wednesday or Friday lunch. We will probably rotate on a monthly basis.

University Recognition
To be recognized by the university, the organization should primarily be run by undergraduates.
http://www.udel.edu/student-centers/AandP/rso/rso-policy.html

Undergraduates who voluteered to get the process started

• Tara Strobel
  
• Sara Antoshkiw
• Niki G.
  

Graduate student who volunteered to help in this process

• Ilknur Aydin
• Emily Gibson
• Sreedevi Sampath
• Sara Sprenkle

GHC Participation
Grace Hopper is a conference held every other year to celebrate women in computing. At GHC, 2004, 900 women in computer science attended the conference! It is a great conference to attend, network, and get advice on various aspects of undergraduate and graduate life. We think it would be nice to have some participants and a large number of students in attendance at the conference. March 15 is the paper/poster submission deadline. We would like to organize attendance at GHC so CIS undergrads and grads are able to attend the event.

Possible funding sources to attend GHC

• Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
  
• Student scholarships provided by GHC. Students have a greater chance of getting scholarships if they participate in GHC by submitting posters or technical papers.

We should try to submit 3 to 4 papers/posters. And try to have 10 - 15 students attending the conference.

Need volunteers for a committee to organize the following:
submissions, coordination, mentoring (to help others prepare a GHC submission)

Graduate student who volunteered to help in this process

• Ilknur Aydin

Previous attendees will writeup on impact of attending GHC, so we can approach Dean for funding, and other students learn how to prepare their scholarship application

Write ups from

• Sara Sprenkle
• Rashida Davis

Possible participants in GHC 2006

• Sara Sprenkle, Grad student - PhD forum
• Ilknur Aydin, Grad student - PhD forum
• Rashida Davis, Grad student - PhD forum
• Stacey Ecott (undergraduate researcher at UD in Summer'05 ) and Sara Sprenkle - poster
  
• Other undergraduate students from UD?

Mentoring activities
Designed for Majors
We need common events that are on a weekly, bi-weekly basis. Model along the lines of big/little sister, i.e., have informal small groups and events planned for small groups.

Or organize mentoring events. Have a brown bag or a party.

Encourage senior undergraduates to talk about pre-registration for Fall in March

Outreach
Designed for pre-majors

Organize study groups, and tutoring sessions
Organize talks in premajor classes, can this be formalized?
1 lecture every semester?

To encourage undergrad researchers - Research talks in CISC220 or CISC260 classes in November/December

Organize grad poster and talks day - Have a prize incentive so undergraduates come for the event. Organize this event on the Friday before Engineering week (E-week)

Public Relations
Goal: To spread the word of events organized by CISters and increase the awareness of the group, so women in CIS know where to go in case of need.

We plan to form a committee with undergraduates from all levels (freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior) participating in PR, so they can let others in their class know about any events

Recruiting
Advice on double majoring?
Recruit students from 105 and 181 classes
Publicize in Face Book

Events
Some other events that we could organize to promote women in computer science at University
of Delaware.

Organize sessions to

• encourage summer research
• choose classes
• help decide on major
• contrast career paths between academia and industry
• prepare for an honors thesis
• balance study/life

Fun events

• pizza study breaks
• jeopardy/pictionary
• moon bounce

Places we can probably approach for funds to organize events

• Office of women's affairs
• WISE
• Dean's office