The big smile on her face stopped him in a hall of the Chicago Tech Academy High School (ChiTech). After some small talk, ChiTech Head Recruiter Walid Johnson finally learned why one of his high school students was smiling so wide. She told him, “For the first time in my life, I feel like it’s actually OK to be smart.”
That was the biggest compliment Johnson ever heard a student give the school, and it came from a young woman, whose gender currently make up 49 percent of ChiTech’s student body.
During its first three years of operation, ChiTech’s ratio of female to male students, selected by lottery, has been roughly 50/50, signaling that the school is consistently attracting a healthy contingent of female applicants.
The key, says Johnson, is that ChiTech works hard to broadcast the message that “Technology is for all children—boys and girls.”
In promotional videos and marketing collateral, ChiTech consciously includes images of girls working hard at the school.
When in front of female student applicants, Johnson will tailor his speech, underscoring that ChiTech has a chapter of Microsoft’s DigiGirlz for high school girls. In addition, he mentions how ChiTech students have a chance to visit female CIOs and VPs in major corporations—powerful women doing powerful things in technology—and will be matched up with mentors. “A lot of girls get very excited about that,” said Johnson.
Whenever he can, Johnson will show prospective students that many of ChiTech’s top students are female, including current female students in presentations. “I have a lot of great guys, but my top students are girls. They’re very dedicated and very focused.”
Female middle school students tend to travel in packs, and Johnson encourages that. “The best thing is that girls often times will bring their friends and try to enroll them in here. Guys tend to enroll for themselves only.”
Supported Once Enrolled
This year, ChiTech launched a Young Women’s Leadership Society. An inaugural group of students, selected by guidance counselors and teachers from all grades, was invited with personalized invitations, but the group is open to every female student.
At first the group’s monthly programs focused on networking and building trust among participants, but recently they’re branching out—meeting with local female executives, including a lawyer for the state government, the assistant CIO for the City of Chicago, and Sarah Pang, senior vice president of CNA’s corporate communications and public affairs and co-chair of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's transition team.
ChiTech’s leadership group programming and meetings with female leaders are teaching the young women how to speak, what to wear, how to behave and how to handle conflict professionally. “They want to be exposed to female minorities and minorities in general, as speakers and mentors,” says ChiTech Development Coordinator Dove Haase. “We’re teaching girls at a young age how to ask for a mentor and how to maintain a mentoring relationship that’s mutually beneficial.”
Pang and a handful of CNA executives toured ChiTech in late February, visiting classes where students gave impromptu presentations of their work, and meeting more formally with four members of the Young Women’s Leadership Society. Pang came away impressed with the professionalism of the young women’s presentation to her group, with the students’ desire to learn how to behave in the business world, and with ChiTech itself.
“They are going above and beyond in a smart way that creates a really supportive atmosphere for growing their young women into young leaders,” says Pang. “They are so mature for their age because of how (staff) are working with them.”
Johnson disabuses anyone who might think the female students of ChiTech are the retiring type. “They’re very aggressive because they want to be successful,” he says. These girls are full-tilt involved with their classes and stepping up to lead or co-lead projects. “It’s not by force,” says Johnson. “They want to lead; they want to take the reins.”
Gender is not the only stereotype ChiTech navigates as it advances its technology-centric career-prep program. Nearly eight out of 10 ChiTech students come from low-income households. The student body is 70 percent African American, with Hispanic, Asian and Caucasian students rounding out the balance.
Johnson reports ChiTech as a school is ignoring the gender stereotypes and racial boundaries. “By ignoring it and pushing the rigor of the class work, we’re getting students to understand they can be successful.”
CompTIA has supported the Chicago Tech Academy High School since its inception, donating funds, providing internships and other in-kind assistance. This post is the second in a two-part story. Read the first post to learn more about ChiTech students.
