SSHS senior recognized for computing achievements

HELENA – As part of an effort to encourage more young women to choose careers in technology, the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), NorthWestern Energy and Carroll College recognized 20 Montana high school women from 12 high schools for their accomplishments and aspirations in computing and technology April 6 at Carroll College. Seeley-Swan High School senior Nicole Williams was among those recognized for the second year in a row.

The NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing was created to promote the computing aspirations of young women, introduce them to leadership opportunities in the field and generate visibility for women's participation in technology fields. Winners are acknowledged for their outstanding aptitude and interest in technology and computing, leadership ability, academic history and plans for post-secondary education.

Williams applied for the award again this year.

"I'm really shocked that I managed to get it two years in a row and I'm really proud of the work that I did to get there," said Williams.

During the awards ceremony, Carroll College Computer Science Professor Steve Harper said Williams understands what the rural people face in terms of rural learning. She has been working with family friend and mentor Nora McDougall-Collins during her high school career.

McDougall-Collins worked with Williams on tech projects and helped her create a portfolio site for herself from scratch. Now Williams updates and maintains her own website and has several clients for whom she does different tasks. Williams also built a database-driven application for her 4-H club for all the members, leaders and past donors.

One of Williams' ambitions is to create an app to help people with executive dysfunction caused by mental illness to keep track of their daily tasks, show their daily achievements and to congratulate them along the way. 

"She has experience in an alphabet soup of programs like HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, FTO and JavaScript," said Harper. "Nicole is particularly good at debugging programs, according to Nora."

"The scholarships and awards that Nicole has received in the last two years are, in part, a result of her willingness to commit to weekly coding and development meetings," wrote McDougall-Collins in an email. "Like every task, the work of web development has its times of being boring, tedious, repetitious and frustrating. I have worked with others, even adults, who have not persisted. But the long-term results can be seen in the portfolio site Nicole has produced."

"I think that the award is a great motivator for young women who are interested in pursuing information technology, especially if they aren't sure about pursuing an education in [science, technology, engineering or mathematics] fields," said Williams.

While Williams plans to attend college, she is unsure of her career path. Currently she is considering law and legal studies. She doesn't plan on pursuing a career in technology but remains open to the opportunity.

Williams will no longer be working with her mentor. McDougall-Collins said she is open to starting over with a new middle to high school student who is interested in persisting in learning about technology. If interested contact her online at https://montanawebmaster.com/contact-nora/

Find out more about the National Center for Women & Information Technology visit http://www.ncwit.org.