Students in Technology, Academia, Research, and Service (STARS) Computing Corps is a national organization of practice for student-led regional engagement as a means to broaden participation in computing. The organization has participating communities at over 50 colleges and universities around the country. Its purpose is to foster continued national adoption of student-led regional engagement by providing seed funding to computing departments that implement the Corps or infuse its practices of student-led regional engagement with departmental cultures; a community of support through the STARS Online social network, website, and digital library; and the STARS Celebration, an annual, national gathering of the Corps.
Over the past few years, Vida Winans, computer science graduate coordinator, along with several Illinois Tech students, has been offering classes to high school girls, volunteering at STEM fairs in schools, setting up financial and programming workshops and providing service to the committee in line with the mission of STARS. These services have added up to more than 100 hours of service from the STARS community at Illinois Tech. We, as members of the STARS at Illinois Tech, aim to increase this and reach up to 500 hours of service in the next two years. We have a lot of projects planned that will be under implementation soon. If anyone wants to volunteer click here.