What is the difference between leading as a woman in computing science and leading for women in computing science?

That was one of the questions that distinguished the winners of the Google Anita Borg Scholarship this year.

The Scholarship encourages women to excel in computing and technology fields. This year, the Scholarship announced its fifth class of scholars in the U.S. and the first class of Anita Borg Scholars in Canada. Angelica Lim and Ming Hua – two computing science students at Simon Fraser University are two of the proud recipients of the inaugural Scholarship in Canada. Angelica is one of the Scholarship winners and Ming is one of the Scholarship finalists.

The Scholarship was based on the strength of the candidates’ academic background and demonstrated leadership. Ming, an international student who came to SFU in 2006, was involved as President of the student society at Fudan University in China. She continued her involvement in student clubs, by serving as secretary of the Women in Computing Science group at SFU and volunteering with the GradBuddy program. She is a Ph.D. student working on databases and data mining with Professor Jian Pei at Simon Fraser University.

Angelica, who was key in creating the Women in Computing Science group at Simon Fraser University says, “I was already familiar with Anita Borg as I have volunteered with Anita Borg Institute previously in the capacity of their online community leader for the Grace Hopper Conference. I really knew what she stood for and her views and I tried to portray that in my essay… A lot of people at the retreat were involved with their Women in Computing Science group. And I had helped start that here at SFU”.

The Scholarship winners and scholars were then invited to a networking opportunity in New York and in the winners’ words were “pampered” by their hosts. Google hosts quite a few networking opportunities for students to meet people in the industry as well as other students with similar interests. At this particular event, hosted for the Google Anita Borg scholars and finalists, the winners got an opportunity to meet female googlers and talk to them in “comfortable settings”. Other than talking about research work, the googlers shared with them how they balance their lives and work. “It was very inspiring for me”, said Angelica.

Both Angelica and Ming want to encourage entrepreneurship ideas amongst girls. According to Ming, in the current web 2.0 phase, entrepreneurial ideas like Google, YouTube and Facebook have all been headed by males.

They both would like to see some new entrepreneurship in computing science headed by women. That, according to Angelica, would be the difference between leading as a woman in computing science and leading for women in computing science.

Written by Salima Vastani