Shortly after the Anita Borg Institute page on Facebook launched in February, two of the page’s new fans sent me messages. Students led by graduate Alicia Chong and advisor Martha Cisneros had started a new organization at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM). Their group is called Mujeres en Tecnología (Women in Technology) and cleverly nicknamed MenTe (Spanish for mind). Alicia was looking for information of use to MenTe members on internships, scholarships to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, etc. I sent her some pointers and posted scholarship info to the Grace Hopper 2008 group on Facebook. I also invited Alicia to post something about MenTe to the ABI fan page, where she might connect with students from similar organizations for advice and encouragement. She did, and other young women have followed suit with postings on technical women’s groups at Simon Fraser University in Canada, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and the National Institute of Technology in Surat, India.
In March, as Alicia and her MenTe colleague Andrea Martinez planned a trip to California for spring break, she sent another Facebook message. Could I recommend places to see or people they should meet in Silicon Valley? Impressed that they would spend vacation time to 
advance MenTe, I invited them over to the ABI office; hooked them up with Gilda Garreton at Sun Microsystems, who leads the Latinas in Computing community; and found a few other contacts who, if not able to meet, could at least provide information by e-mail. Alicia and Andrea came by on March 18 with their traveling companions and talked about their goals for MenTe, what they’ve accomplished so far, and their plans going forward. Their first MenTe event had a great turnout, female students eager to connect with other women in traditionally male programs — and a couple of male supporters as well. They were bright and charming and loaded with great ideas. They left ABI that day with GHC T-shirts and posters; I left with a big smile on my face.
Since that visit Alicia has connected, through our Facebook discussion boards, with a few women from universities in other countries. They are partnering on multiple program submissions for GHC08. This is exactly my goal for the ABI Communities program: not only to spread the word about our programs, research and events, but to help technical women connect with and support each other. This particular set of connections may be beginner’s luck for our Facebook page, and certainly Alicia deserves most of the credit. But it’s a sign of the potential for reaching and supporting young technical women on the social networks where they are already active and comfortable.
Anita Borg Institute programs that benefit students include the annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, GHC scholarships, the Systers email listserv and its Pass-It-On Grant program, and increasingly our presence on Facebook. I invite you to share with and support MenTe and other technical women students through our Facebook page (or associated Grace Hopper 2008 group), Systers email community, discussion forum or wiki – wherever you’re most comfortable contributing. Tell us about your own campus groups and share resources for women studying computer science, engineering, and information technology. These young women represent the future. Having met Alicia and Andrea, the future is looking brighter to me already.