CalWomenTech Case Studies
Evergreen Valley College (EVC), one of the CalWomenTech Project colleges, went from a 69% to 100% female completion rate in 6 months time with an average rate of 83% over the entire Project. Male retention rates also increased from 65% to 76%. Over the course of the Project, EVC also successfully increased the recruitment of female students in introductory automotive courses by 45%.
San Diego Mesa Community College, one of the CalWomenTech Project colleges, used the CalWomenTech Project's core recruitment strategies along with a special focus on women students during their annual GIS day to significantly increase the number of women in their GIS program. Plus, GIS instructors modified their teaching style based on the WomenTech Training they received on retention, resulting in 100% retention of female and male students for several semesters.
In addition to implementing core recruitment strategies provided by the CalWomenTech Project, City College of San Francisco's Computer Networking and Information Technology Program incorporated custom recruitment strategies into their annual strategic plans, with a special focus on the college's counseling staff. What's more, adjustments to teaching styles -- based on IWITTS's retention training -- positively impacted completion rates of not only female students, but males as well.
Las Positas College, one of eight CalWomenTech Project Sites, increased their enrollment of female students in the trades through implementation of their recruitment strategic plan and a variety of creative strategies ranging from free press coverage of their program on a local TV station (and showcasing the clip on their website) to a pink "Women in Technology RULE" emery board/ruler give-away.
