Vision:
CWIT community members are prepared and empowered to be change agents in creating technology workplaces that are diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
Mission:
The UMBC Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) enables success for all underrepresented groups, and their allies, in technology fields. In the College of Engineering & Information Technology, CWIT supports students with a nurturing and challenging community, transformative leadership experiences, and professional development opportunities.
Values:
We believe that there is a social justice imperative to ensure equity in STEM fields as our society advances technologically. Computing and engineering directly benefit from a workforce that more closely represents the population, and society advances when obstacles to full participation are removed. We are committed to expanding opportunities for a greater diversity of students, allowing them to harness the power of technology education and fulfill their greatest potential.
This imperative requires critical attention to the policies and structures of our educational institutions, as well as to the details of our everyday interactions among members of the CWIT community. It often also requires differentiated opportunities for groups that are historically and currently marginalized or underrepresented, not just a level playing field.
In order to create programs and environments at UMBC that will foster students who will become leaders in technology workplaces, CWIT operates with a focus on the following values:
- Academic Excellence
- Students develop a lifelong love for learning and discovery not only in the classroom, but also through applied learning and co-curricular experiences.
- Professional Excellence
- We send our graduates into the next stages of their lives equipped with the knowledge and tools to effectively navigate their careers.
- Students are enabled to be change agents in creating technology workplaces that are diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
- Personal Excellence
- Students learn to become their own advocates and to face difficult situations head-on, while also understanding when and how to seek help. No one gets through on their own.
- CWIT community members act with integrity, treat others with dignity and respect, and take initiative to develop as leaders throughout their time in our programs.
- Inclusive Excellence
- CWIT community members are empowered to share their thoughts and ideas and to engage in thoughtful discussion when their ideas differ from one another. We strive to be a community where people across all identities feel included, valued, and heard.
- In order to foster a supportive and genuine community, we encourage bravery and vulnerability among CWIT community members. We hold one another accountable to CWIT values.
- CWIT community members engage in healthy and inclusive communication. Words matter, and have the power both to include and to exclude, to affirm and to damage.