That google scholarship (The Google 2006 Australia Anita Borg Scholarship)

As a fun side project, I track who views my websites and how they get to them. Recently, some people viewing this blog and my personal blog have searched in relation to the Australia Anita Borg Memorial Google scholarship I won recently. For some reason, my blogs come up when people search for things related to the scholarship, like winners, essays and the sort. All the searchers so far reside in Europe (I had some from France and Sweden yesterday). At the retreat in Sydney, the conveners mentioned that they were going to be starting it in Europe and I guess the announcements are out and potential applicants are wanting to know more about it.

It's quite keen of them to be Googling and searching through blogs to finding out what other finalists and winners did in the application process. Quite clever in some aspects because it might give them some insight. I don't know the exact details but the applications are due at the end of January and the essay questions would be similar. I'm not particularly sure how much I want to write about my application because I feel that potential applicants from Europe may be reading this right now!

But since the scholarship is for such a great cause and Anita's legacy should live on through us, I may give a few details on what I wrote. Sharing and networking is what it's all about. Let's just say my responses to the first and third question was very technical, focusing mainly on the contributions and the motivations to why I would/have chosen such projects. The second question I loved because I got to write about myself. I talked about my teachings and community service. And finally, the last question I went a little overboard. A similar idea to what I had in mind was actually presented at the last Grace Hopper Conference for Celebration of Women. For my proposal, I planned exactly where each portion of the money went, where it would be spent and prospective locations. I also rang up venues to find exact prices and availability dates. There may also have been a time line. This time line included when advertisements should be placed and how publicity should proceed.

Please if you've read this through a search or whatever technique you used, leave a comment and let me know how you went/go. Also if you're in Data mining or security, please feel free to look around this blog and leave any ideas. Anita's all about networking with more women in technical fields of computer science. If you're not sure if you should apply or not, do it. It's great fun. You never know, you might win! But even if you don't, it's a great opportunity to just have a go. The ladies at Google are fantastic and it was great to meet other women from Australia who shared my interests.