Google RISE Awards | Supports Girls and Minorities in Technology

Google is constantly raising bar when it comes computer science, technology and the internet. This is where the Google RISE Awards comes into play. Since 2010, more than 200 organizations have received an award, and this year, 37 organizations are receiving a cumulative $1.5 million to keep this vital effort affecting the world. Hundreds of thousands of girls and underrepresented minority students don’t have the resource made available to them in order to learn computer science.

Google’s partners facilitate programs and activities including teaching girls about the intersection of coding and music production in California, promoting computational thinking through game-design in Mexico, and inspiring children in Brazil to program alongside their parents.

You can’t truly learn about computer science from reading a book. It is an art that needs to be practiced and experimented with. This is what makes the Google RISE Awards so important to the ever growing world of technology.

RISE Award recipients receive:

• Funding: Grants range from $15,000 to $50,000 USD.
• Access to a global network of CS partners: This includes an invitation to the annual RISE Global Summit and participation in the Google+ online community.
• Consultancy with Google experts and volunteers: Learn about technical tools & organizational development over the course of 12 months.

In turn, RISE Award recipients are expected to:

• Report on progress: Demonstrate scale of CS program over one year and keep Google updated on progress by submitting midyear and end of year reports.
• Share resources across the community: Communicate ideas and expertise on CS outreach programs within the global RISE community.

Organizations are eligible to apply if they have a(n):

• Emphasis on CS programs: We fund CS organizations that currently run extracurricular computer science programs or STEM organizations looking to start a computer science outreach program.
• Focus on girls, minorities, low-income students: Programs must target girls and/or underrepresented minority students up to the age of 18. Awards are not open to programs targeting students already enrolled in university or above.
• Regional reach with potential to scale: Programs should have regional reach (city, county or state) with the potential to scale nationally and collaborate internationally with similarly focused organizations.
• New program: Previous RISE awardees may apply if adding a new dimension to former programs or launching a new CS program.

Recipients for this year’s 2015 Award are as follows:

• North America :
  DiscoverE | Edmonton, Canada
  Empoder | East Palo Alto, CA
  GUSTO and THRUST Educational Programs | Fisk University | Nashville, TN
  Institute for Computing Education (ICE) at Georgia Tech | Rise Up 4 CS | Atlanta, GA, USA
  LA Makerspace | Los Angeles, CA
  Ladies Learning Code | Toronto, Canada
  Maker Education Initiative (Maker Ed) | Oakland, CA
  NCWIT AspireIT | Boulder, CO
  MIT Office of Engineering Outreach Programs | Cambridge, Massachusetts
  Peninsula Bridge | Palo Alto, CA
  ScriptEd, Inc. | New York City, USA
  Women’s Audio Mission | San Francisco, USA

• Latin America:
  Computação na Escola | Federal University of Santa Catarina | Florianópolis, Brazil
  Laboratoria | Lima, Peru
  Paraiba State Olympiad in Informatics | Universidade Federal de Campina Grande | Campina Grande, Brazil
• Europe:
  Code Club World | London, UK
  France-ioi | Paris, France
  Lero – the Irish Software Research Centre | Limerick, Ireland
  Skool | Budapest, Hungary
  i-factory at the Swiss Museum of Transport | Lucerne, Switzerland
  TechLounge | Bucharest, Romania
  Universidad Rey Juan Carlos | Madrid, Spain
  VHTO | Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  Young Rewired State | United Kingdom
  Codabra | Russia, Moscow
• Middle East:
  she codes; | Tel Aviv, Israel
• Sub-Saharan Africa:
  @iLabAfrica | Nairobi, Kenya
  Africa Teen Geeks | Johannesburg, South Africa
  Co-Creation Hub Nigeria (CcHUB) | Lagos, Nigeria
  Rainbow Gate Foundation Nigeria | Abeokuta, Nigeria

This is truly an outstanding organization that is benefiting the future of our world. By investing in the youth of today, tomorrow will be brighter. The team at ROI Media Works looks forward to seeing where the Google RISE Awards go.