"The CalWomenTech training was very informative and useful. My only regret is that every teacher and administrator could not
attend. What I learned could be applied to all of our classes at the community college! It gave us a solid foundation on which to
plan for a successful recruitment and retention project to get women into our Facilities Maintenance Program."
Kathy Werle
Dean of Applied Sciences
San Jose City College
CalWomenTech Site, Year 2
"The CalWomenTech Workshop
R-O-C-K-S! It is super-informative and uses video clips and factual information to educate its
participants on how to attract, enroll, retain, and empower prospective female students. Our facilitator – Donna Milgram – was a
charm. She covered large volumes of information effortlessly and made the learning enjoyable, but helped us to frame a strategy to
accomplish our goals. Very successful!"
Jonathan King, Ph.D
Dean of Business & Workforce Development
Evergreen Valley College
CalWomenTech Site, Year 2
The 8 selected community colleges receive FREE intensive training and technical assistance from national experts!
Two-day CalWomenTech training including development of a recruitment and retention plan. Based on IWITTS's highly successful WomenTech Educators Train-the-Trainer course this training combines lecture outlining best practices with an interactive video, case studies, and the development by each Center of their own recruitment and retention plan with action steps and a timeline. Each participant receives a CalWomenTech Educators Toolkit to take away, including both IWITTS's existing products and those developed especially for this Project.
Multi-media recruitment materials and collateral customized for each community college team. The CalWomenTech Project's experienced consultant team develops templates for recruitment materials - and customizes the materials with input from the teams. Template collateral materials include:
Recruitment flyer, poster, college catalogue page, banner
Content, architecture and navigation of a WomenTech section of the CalWomenTech community college's website
Sample press release, public service announcement
Sample flyer, e-mail, letter and talking points for recruiting female role models in STEM
Follow-up meetings of the CalWomenTech Leadership Teams every 6-12 months to present progress updates and receive additional training. Training needs are identified via quarterly online evaluations of the Project. In the third year of the Project, a CalWomenTech user conference is held in which all the community colleges make presentations on their recruitment and retention strategies to each other. The Project funds several team members to come from each college, with participation tied to completion of the quarterly evaluations.
Individualized consultation and technical assistance to the Community College Centers as they implement Project strategies. Methods of support include e-mail and phone support, as well as on-site technical assistance and facilitation. Two on-site technical assistance visits of two days each are budgeted for each community college during the first year of the Project and one to two visits for subsequent years (in addition to the joint trainings and meetings every 6-12 months). Each of the Centers is given an annual consultation and technical assistance "time budget" of credits that they can redeem for assistance.
Periodic webinars and podcasts on specialty topic areas with expert guest speakers for both educators and for the women themselves. These online trainings are also available to the wider California community college system.
Support strategies for the women themselves in the technology programs. Strategies include women and technology clubs, real-time mentoring, support groups, and written tools such as survival handbooks. Students also have access to online mentoring tools such as the WomenTechWorld.org's WomenTechTalk listserv and IWITT's e-mentoring software.
Facilitated sharing of new products developed by the CalWomenTech community college teams as they implement their recruitment and retention plans. While IWITTS shares its expertise and the best practices of others, there is still a dearth of off-the-shelf classroom tools for technology that appeal to females. Classroom tools for technology are being developed in the course of this five year Project that appeal to female interests and learning styles. IWITTS disseminates related lesson plans among the CalWomenTech teams for their use.
Yes! Any California community college has access to the following services.
CalWomenTech resources available to all community colleges
Access to the WomenTech Proven Practices Library which brings educators a research-based road map for increasing the number of women and girls in the technology classroom by offering best-practice case studies and off-the-shelf resources.
The CalWomenTech Learning Library provides tools for both students and educators. Educators can use our library to help students develop building block skills in technology, while students can use our library to gain resources that will help them improve the skills necessary to succeed in their occupational program.
Online trainings, webinars and podcasts for both educators and women themselves. Topics include spatial reasoning, how to develop an online women in technology introductory course, how to develop male allies in a male-dominated field and time management tips for women in technology.
Presentations by IWITTS at key conferences in the California community college system such as the California Community College Association for Occupational Education.
Coverage of the CalWomenTech Project in the California education press online and offline. Media coverage of the CalWomenTech Project spreads knowledge of best practices for recruiting and retaining females to technology courses. See our Press Room.
Access to on-line support strategies for the women themselves. For example, students will be able to receive peer support at www.womentechworld.org's WomenTechTalk email discussion group that now has over 500 members. They can also use IWITTS's e-mentoring software solution to become a mentor or find a mentor. They can also find a job via womentechworld’s ejobs.
The CalWomenTech Project is Funded by The Program for Research on Gender in Science and Engineering from The National Science Foundation - Grant no. 0533564
to develop spatial reasoning skills and 
Videos designed to assist students with tool identification and use. These materials are not developed or owned by IWITTS.
