Scholarship Sponsorships for Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Announced by the Anita Borg Institute

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire - Nov 9, 2011) - Today the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) announced the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) scholarship sponsors who are providing scholarships for 202 recipients from around the world to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration, November 9-12, 2011 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland Oregon. The corporate scholarship sponsors this year include Cisco, CA Technologies, Comcast Interactive Media, Freddie Mac, Google, Huawei, Intuit, Microsoft, NetApp, Oracle, Raytheon, Salesforce, Symantec, and Thomson Reuters. The National Science Foundation, the Wikimedia Foundation and the Association for Computing Machinery are also supporting scholarships.

Grace Hopper Celebration scholarships provide funding for student travel, lodging and conference registration. Over 1200 students applied for scholarships this year. The scholarships target domestic and international students, underrepresented minorities, and students with disabilities.

"Retention of young technical women is crucial to meeting the growing need for technical talent," said Jody Mahoney, vice president of business development, Anita Borg Institute. "We are extremely grateful to our sponsors who support these scholarships. Without sponsored scholarships, these young women wouldn't be able to gain this new and exciting perspective on their field."

About the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
The world's largest gathering of women in computing in industry, academia, and government, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is a four day technical conference designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Co-presented by the Anita Borg Institute and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the conference has expanded this year to now feature more than 132 sessions (panels, workshops, technical papers, Ph.D. forum, new investigators, technical posters, a track on large scale computing, and "birds of a feather" sessions) across ten tracks, invited technical speakers, and the ACM Student Research Competition.

This year's conference theme, "What If...?", recognizes that innovation in technology arises from the question: "What if a culture of technology that encourages participation and inquiry from a diverse workforce leads to greater levels of innovation?" More than 2800 women and men from over 30 countries in industry, academia, and government are expected to turn out for this year's event. GHC provides technical women with visibility, a sense of community, critical social networks and mentoring relationships that improve female representation in the field. For more information, go to www.gracehopper.org.

About the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
The Anita Borg Institute provides resources and programs to help industry, academia, and government recruit, retain, and develop women leaders in high-tech fields, resulting in higher levels of technological innovation. Our programs serve high-tech women by creating a community and providing tools to help them develop their careers. ABI is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. ABI Partners include: Google, HP, Microsoft, CA Technologies, Cisco, Facebook, First Republic Bank, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Lockheed Martin, Marvell, National Science Foundation, National Security Agency, NetApp, SAP, Symantec, Thomson Reuters, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Amazon, Broadcom, Motorola Foundation, Raytheon, Salesforce, and Yahoo! For more information, visit www.anitaborg.org.