Intro to Illinois WCS
Hi there! Welcome to the Medium page for the Women in Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The goal of this article is to provide a brief overview of what Illinois WCS is, who the officers are, and how you can get involved this upcoming school year with our organization!
About Us
Women in Computer Science (WCS) is a non-profit educational student group under the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Computer Science Department. Our organization is dedicated to supporting the efforts of young women who are pursuing a career in computer science or show an overall interest in technology. Because of the number of women pursuing Computer Science has been steadily decreasing, the organization aims to retain and provide a network of support for members to rely on for advice and camaraderie. Our events are open to everyone, and anyone can become a member at anytime so don’t hesitate to drop in our office or show up to any events! :)
Membership System
Although our events are open to all, we do have a membership system established in order to recognize those who attend more events for their time and contribution to the WCS community. The perks associated with certain amounts of points are listed below. Those with more points will also be invited to our Fall and Spring Banquets, which are invite-only (the specific point cutoff is determined closer to the actual dates of the events).
- 3 points : Receive membership card + Ability to submit to Resume Book
- 5 points : WCS Sticker
- 7 points : Included in Targeted Resume Book (geared toward specific companies)
- 10 points : WCS Pins + One “Antique” (aka old items from past WCS events!)
- 15 points : WCS Shirt
- 25 points : “Honorary Member” — Honored at Banquet (on slide + possibly certificate)
Officers
If you ever have any questions relating to WCS or life in general, don’t hesitate to reach out to our wonderful officers! You can find more information about their hobbies, skill sets, and past work experiences on the Illinois WCS website under the “Officers” tab, but here’s a quick overview of our board for the 2019–2020 school year:
President: Jocelyn Collado
Internal VP: Ayushi Singh
External VP: Grace Cao
Treasurer: Cynthia Damodaran
Corporate Chairs: Shivani Jain and Devanshi Pratap
Mentoring Chair: Deepika Ramachandran
Outreach Chairs: Simran Desai and Nikita Agarwal
Social Chair: Aishani Pal
Tech Team Chairs: Alice Fang and Mihika Aggarwal
Infrastructure Chair: Anna Buyevich
Design Chair: Claire Chiu
A great way to meet the officers is at our kick-off event for the school year on the first day of school (details listed below), or stop by our office (Siebel Center, Room 1318) during Open Office, which is every weekday from 1pm to 4pm. A couple of officers will be in the office during these hours for you to come and ask questions, and it’s a great way to meet other WCS members as well! Don’t hesitate to drop by to say hi, or chill and do homework there — it’s an open space for all :)
Committees
A great way to get involved is by joining a committee! We will go more in depth about the structure of each committee since it varies based on which committee you plan on joining. In the past, we’ve had Corporate, Social, Mentoring, and Outreach committees which consist of three to four members who assist officers in these positions to host events. It’s a great way to get more involved with the WCS community and get a closer hands-on experience of what officers do! Be on the lookout for information regarding this at our General Meetings (GMs), newsletter, and Facebook group :)
Bits N Bytes
To facilitate networking between members and connecting underclassmen with upperclassmen, we have a Bits N Bytes program! This is more of an informal mentorship program, where upperclassmen are referred to as “bytes”, and underclassmen are “bits”. Those who decide to participate are split into “families”, which consist of one to two bytes who have approximately five bits. Sign ups for this will be released at a future date!
Upcoming Events
Some events we have during the first two weeks of school are listed below. To see more information regarding these events, be sure to check out the calendar on our website and visit our Facebook group! (links at very bottom)
- 8/26 @ 5:30pm: Meet the Officers with Amazon
- 8/27 @ 7:00pm: ACM x WCS Mentorship Ice Cream Social
- 8/28 @ 5:00pm: Tech Team Tutorial 1: Terminal Tips and Tricks
- 8/28 @ 6:00pm: ACM x WCS x BAAC Game Night
- 9/4 @ 5:00pm: Tech Team September Social
- 9/4 @ 6:00pm: Tech Talk with Cruise
- 9/5 @ 2:00pm: Coffee Break with Uber
- 9/6 @ 5:00pm: Google Freshman Scavenger Hunt
Contact Us
Find more information about us at the following places listed below! The best way to stay up-to-date with what’s going on in WCS is through Facebook and through our weekly newsletter. Our office on campus is at Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science, Room 1318. You can also add the WCS calendar to your Google Calendar to keep track of our events. Also, we’re planning on having monthly Medium articles, so stay tuned! We look forward to meeting you :)
Mailing List: https://illinoiswcs.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6f053b4b1cec0f29449538eff&id=65a43965f5
Website: http://wcs.illinois.edu/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/illinoisWCS/
Facebook Group (UIUC students only): https://www.facebook.com/groups/illinoiswcs/
Have questions? Send a message to our Facebook Page or email us at contact@illinoiswcs.org!
