Finding Success through SPIRIT

Abstract

Purdue University recently received $1.2M in funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the development of educational programs for high school teachers, high school counselors, and high school students. The purpose of these intervention programs is to show that women (and men) can have interesting, useful, and society-impacting careers in Information Technology. The collection of these programs, named SPIRIT (Surprising Possibilities Imagined and Realized through Information Technology), will offer the first set of teacher institutes and student/counselor summer programs in July 2008. This paper will shre the SPIRIT plan as well as the reasons why SPIRIT may have been successful in receiving funding from NSF.