Sara Carlstead's Rice Women's Resource Center Nomination

Sara Carlstead is a Hanszen junior double-majoring in computer science and the study of women and gender. As External Chair for the student organization Rice Women in Computing, Sara has helped countless young women (and men) overcome the difficulties encountered in Rice's challenging computer science curriculum. For example, last spring Sara helped to organize the "COMP 210 Survival Session." She also monitors Rice's "cs-women" mailing list and is always available with support and advice for those who issue an electronic cry for help.

Through Rice Women in Computing, Sara has also helped to organize "Welcome to the Internet!" sessions, at which Houston-area secondary school girls spend an afternoon with young women majoring in computer science and engineering at Rice.

Sara also serves on the CRPC Women's Programs steering committee, which designs programs to encourage more women to pursue coursework and careers in science, engineering, and mathematics. In fact, Sara was one of the "founding mothers" of the GirlTECH teacher training program, which has already trained more than 150 primary and secondary school teachers in the effective use of the Internet and how to design lessons that will appeal to girls.

Sara has presented at several GirlTECH events, as well as at the Expanding Your Horizons in Math & Science Conference sponsored by the American Association for University Women.

Last year, Sara represented the Rice University Department of Computer Science at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, held in Washington, D.C. Her participation in this event has since allowed her to greatly contribute to gender-related outreach activities at Rice and the CRPC, and it is because of these contributions that we are proud to nominate Sara for the Women's Resource Center award.

Updated by Debbie Campbell (dcamp@cs.rice.edu) and the CRPC Web Support Team
Posted February 12, 1996.
http://www.crpc.rice.edu/CRPC/WhatsNew/nominationSara.html