WISE acquires Smartgirl.org

The WISE Program recently acquired the SmartGirl.org web site from UM's Institute for Research on Women in Gender (IRWG). The thirteen year-old site has been managed by IRWG since 2001. Due to organizational changes, IRWG was looking for a new home and a new direction for SmartGirl.org.

SmartGirl.com was developed In 1995 by Isabel Walcott as a web site specifically for adolescent girls (though always including some boys). The site was a place where girls could take surveys; share information, ideas, favorite things, and have a major role in developing and maintaining the site itself. SmartGirl was an unusual in that it was a site intended for girls, virtually unheard of at the time in the almost exclusively all-male world of computer science. In addition, these girls had continual input into the design, content, and execution of the site.

In 2001, Walcott and her investors decided to turn the site over to a non-profit and chose the University of Michigan. Housed in the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, the site has provided an excellent teaching opportunity for students interested in integrating theory and practice on mentoring, gender, technology and adolescent girl's development. The site remains extremely popular with teenage girls.

WISE Director Cinda-Sue Davis sees the site as having a lot of untapped potential, particularly as it relates to girls in science and engineering. "We want to maintain the current SmartGirl audience base, so we do not plan any drastic changes. However, SmartGirl Program staff, Rebecca Reuble and Ruthie Freeman, have terrific new ideas for the site," says Davis. "We are very excited by the opportunities this acquisition presents for WISE."

April 2008 eNews

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