![\"students_candyandcoding_thumb\"](\"http:\/\/dev.bcreativegroup.com\/jhuwse\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/students_candyandcoding_thumb-300x202.jpg\")
\nTake an old-fashioned sewing circle, add a<\/strong> 21st-century twist, and you\u2019ve got the Department of Computer Science\u2019s weekly Coding Circle.<\/p>\n Sponsored by the department\u2019s Women in Computer Science (WiCS) group, Coding Circle brings together female students, a faculty mentor, chocolate, computers, salty snacks, nail polish, and occasionally even needles and thread for the purpose of camaraderie, support, and networking.<\/p>\n \u201cCoding Circle offers a place and time for women computer science students to come together for support, to chat about classes, work on homework, and just have fun socializing,\u201d says faculty advisor Joanne Selinski, a computer science associate teaching professor and the department\u2019s director of undergraduate studies. \u201cOur goal when we started it five or six years ago was to improve our department\u2019s retention of the few women we had and it\u2019s grown from there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCoding Circle offers a place and time for women computer science students to come together for support, to chat about classes, work on homework, and just have fun socializing.\u201d<\/p>\n Joanne Selinsky<\/strong> Faculty Advisor<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n That strategy worked. Today, women are 23 percent of the department\u2019s majors and 41 percent of its minors. Word has gotten out that the Department of Computer Science is a great place for female students.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the people who attend are PhD students or upperclassmen, and they give us a lot of good information about internships and the things that are ahead,\u201d says freshman Rebecca Bushko.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no question that snacks are an integral part of the Coding Circle experience. On a recent Friday afternoon, students tore into miniature bags of Utz pretzels and unwrapped miniature chocolate bars and Jolly Ranchers while others plucked bottles of nail polish from a basket that Selinski plunked down mid-table.<\/p>\n Though the group\u2019s name is a play on the old concept of a sewing circle, where women would come together to stitch projects for charity, Coding Circle aficionados have only taken up needle and thread a few times in the group\u2019s history.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year, the topic of learning to sew came up and a girl brought in her sewing machine so I could teach them, but we never got that far,\u201d Selinski says. \u201cWe have done some hand mending\u2014sewing on buttons and hemming. But that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Take an old-fashioned sewing circle, add a 21st-century twist, and you\u2019ve got the Department of Computer Science\u2019s weekly Coding Circle. Sponsored by the department\u2019s Women in Computer Science (WiCS) group, Coding Circle brings together female students, a faculty mentor, chocolate, computers, salty snacks, nail polish, and occasionally even needles and thread for the purpose of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-students","issue-summer-2014"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n