Women in Technology Graduate Certificate

The Women in Technology Graduate Certificate provides degree-seeking and non-degree-seeking students a complex understanding of culture, workplace dynamics, and leadership in technology.

Making Change for a Better Future

In this program, students study the business environment and culture of the tech industry, particularly focusing on the ways in which gender, race, and class intersect to shape the experiences of women and other underrepresented groups in the industry. Because diverse and inclusive teams encourage creativity and innovation, students develop the skills needed to create these teams and become successful leaders within this rapidly expanding field.

This 16-credit graduate certificate has been created in response to the immediate need in the technology industry to help professionals in the field work through the complex issues facing companies who are trying to recruit underrepresented groups into their workforce. By developing an interdisciplinary curriculum that takes a three-pronged approach to the issue—cultural study of the industry, technological skill development, and business leadership—we hope to better prepare those already in the field and those looking to enter the tech industry with the tools necessary to enact cultural change within their companies in order to better understand and eliminate the reasons why women and other underrepresented groups choose to leave. 

Certificate Requirements

The certificate requires 16 credit hours.

Cultural Studies of Technology (7 credits)
WGST 610   Feminist Technology Studies
DCD 601      Coding for Humanists
WGST 701   Women in Technology Capstone    

Business Leadership (3 credits)
MBA 615     Leadership

Technical Skills (6 credits)
Choose either the Swift Programming Track or the
Technology Skills Development Track. An Apple computer
is required to complete the Swift Programming Track.

Swift Programming Track
IST 602        App Development 1         
IST 603        App Development 2

Technology Skills Development Track
Choose two of the following courses:
CSCI 534     Digital Forensics and E-Discovery
IST 650        Information Systems Technology in Context
IST 660        Intro to Cybersecurity & Information Assurance
IST 670        Data Management and Analytics
IST 678        Business Intelligence and Analytics

Information

Megan McIlreavy, Ph.D.
Associate Dean
HTC Honors College and Center for Interdisplinary Studies
Kearns Hall 104 D
843-349-2728
mmcilrea@coastal.edu

Robert Young, Ph.D.
Interim Dean, College of Graduate Studies and Research
Baxley Hall 223A
843-349-2277
ryoung@coastal.edu

APPLY NOW

Applicants for regular admission to the Women in Technology Graduate Certificate program must meet the following criteria:

1. Completion of an application form and payment of the application fee.
   
   
2. Evidence of having received a baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited institution or its equivalent at a foreign institution based on a four-year degree program.
   
   
3. Submission of an official transcript from each post-secondary school or college previously attended (all prior undergraduate academic study must be represented as well as any graduate study).
   
   
4. Submission of a written statement of educational and career goals, including how this certificate program will contribute to realizing those goals. 

Application to the certificate program is through Coastal's Graduate School Application.