“The percentage of bachelor’s degree recipients who are women has improved to 51 percent from 39 percent in 2004-2005” according to the National Science Foundation surveys. However when it comes to computer science in particular, “the proportion of women has been falling.” “Twenty-five years ago, more young women in colleges and universities were drawn to computer science than today.” __Randall Stross.

My name is Joyce Bevins and I was raised by my grandparents in West Philadelphia. As a child I always knew I wanted to be one of the first in my family to go off to school at a four year University. Although the road was rough I held on to that goal tightly and now it is a reality. Currenty I am a sophomore at Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) located in North Carolina, majoring in computer science with a minor in aviation science. I gained an interest for computers in the six grade when I join Y.E.S (Youth Empowerment Services). Our goal was to create a website for the Haddington Community. Even back then I noticed that there were more males than females in the program. The lack of women in the computer science field overall has influenced me to farther my education and enhance my knowlege about computers. As technology expands and the use of computers increases, the more I become inquisitive about this field and its opportunities.

"When the door of opportunity comes, it's up to you to go through the threshold". I was given the opportunity to be a member in the "Center of Excellence for Remote Sensing Education and Research" (CERSER ) program at ECSU.This program focuses on teaching undergraduate students how to conduct research, build computer skills, hands on training, earning high GPA's, networking and acquire summer internships.The training that I’ve obtained through CERSER consisted of Linux, Dream Weaver, Mac OSX, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft office and more. During my freshman year in CERSER I was a part of “The Undergraduate Research Multimedia Team of 2008-2009” where we “focused on numerous fields, which included installations of content management systems, inquiring results, and web utilization.” CERSER is like a stepping stool because it is preparing me for the next level of education, which will be graduate school. I know that it will not be esay but the biggest rewards in life do not come easy. Therefore I do not expect any part of this journey to be a smooth ride.

This past summer I traveled to Indiana University (IU) in Bloomington Indiana to participate in the STEM initiative program which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. My research that I conducted there was creating a social networking application for Polar Grid by using Facebook Application programming Interface (API) and web technologies such as XML, Apache, and MYSQL. During the guess lectures at IU I had the chance to network with professional and experienced people who have earn thier bachelor, masters and even PHD degrees. While in Indiana we traveled to Michigan University for a weekend to attend the CIC SROP Conference and present our research for the “Poster Presentations”. The CIC SROP conference was for undergrade and graduate students. The purpose of the conference was to incourage students to not only earn a bachalors and Masters degree but to reach for a Ph.d degree as well.

This fall semester in CERSER a I am apart of the "CRISIM Research Team" and we are anaylizing and evaluating the features and data on Mars. We will then categlorize the images based on their levels of . This research project is still in progress. While at ECSU my goal is to have all the training, skills, and experience I need for graduate school. I intend of conducting more research, attending more conferences,building my resume, gaining a elevated GPA and being the next female to earn a degree in computer science.

jebevins@mail.ecsu.edu