In an effort to help support first-year students and foster opportunities for women and other traditionally underrepresented groups in information technology, a new initiative of DePaul University’s School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI) recently received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The grant will fund The Mentoring Project, a college-wide program to support and retain students across CTI’s 14 majors. Approximately 90 percent of the grant is earmarked for scholarships for student peer advisers in the program and students who are being mentored. In keeping with DePaul’s mission of providing access to education to first-generation and urban students, only students who are currently receiving financial aid are eligible for the scholarships.

The remainder of the four-year grant will go to support a number of other efforts, including:

• An undergraduate peer mentoring program for first-year students;

• HerCTI, a learning community for women who are currently enrolled;

• Digital Divas, the student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Committee on Women in Computing;

• Funding for travel, conference fees and student memberships in professional technology organizations, to expose the students to networking and mentoring opportunities in their field post-graduation.

“The lack of attainable role models and the demands of job and family have often been obstacles on the road to success for students in technology-related fields, particularly for women and other underrepresented groups,” said Lucia Dettori, DePaul CTI assistant professor and coordinator of The Mentoring Project. “The funding for these scholarships will allow us to support both student mentors and those being mentored to build an effective community of learners, ready to take on the challenging world of information technology.”

DePaul CTI is one of the largest, most innovative and wide-ranging information technology and digital cinema schools in the country. The undergraduate programs enroll 1,125 students and offer 14 different degrees. Approximately 2,000 students are enrolled in its 18 graduate programs. CTI also features a doctoral degree program in computer science. For more information, visit www.cti.depaul.edu.