Celebrating our 2025 ITWomen Scholars
Please join me in congratulating the winners of our 2025 Scholarship! We are thrilled to recognize five extraordinary young women who were awarded ITWomen Scholarships to support their pursuit of degrees in technology and engineering on the evening of May 19, 2025 at our Virtual Awards ceremony:
🔹 Dianelys Suarez – Hialeah Gardens Senior High | University of Florida, Electrical Engineering
🔹 Aleshia Cason – iTech @ Thomas A. Edison | Information Systems, Miami Dade College Honors College
🔹 Nathalie Rodriquez – Hialeah Gardens Senior High | Rice University, Computer Science
🔹 Natalia Ray – Spanish River High | University of Florida, Electrical Engineering
🔹 Hibatoallah Mourak – Forest Hill Community High | Florida Atlantic University Wilkes Honors College, Electrical Engineering
Bravo, 2024 ITWomen Scholars
June 6 2024 saw us welcome the winners of our 2024 Scholarship competition into the ITWomen family during our annual Scholarship Awards Ceremony. These phenomenal young women are pursuing degrees from Computer Science to BioMedical Engineering. Their interests range from Cyber Defense, Gaming, Natural Language Processing to Prosthetics (Neural Connectivity)
Scholarship Winners
- Adrianna Ray, Palm Beach Central High, University of Central Florida, Computer Science (Cyber Defense Focus)
- Abigail Lozano, American Senior High, Miami Dade College, Computer Science (Gaming, UX/UI)
- Sophia Pappous, Pompano HIgh, University of Florida, Computer Science (passionate about Minecraft and dance)
- Juliana Prada, Cypress Bay High, University of Florida, Computer Science (Natural Language Processing Lab)
- Ella Meek, Cypress Bay High, Northwestern University, BioMed Engineering (Prosthetics with feeling, Neural Connectivity)
Our virtual Scholarship Awards Ceremony was held June 6 for our new scholars and their parents.
148 Scholarships, $955,000
Since 2002, ITWomen has awarded $955,000 in scholarships to 148 young women. This is something I am really proud of, as ITWomen is a volunteer-driven organization. We literally run on the fuel of women who are passionate about ensuring more women get the opportunity to not only be consumers of technology, but get to be part of creating the technology that ultimately drives every aspect of our global economy.
“Our aim is to help you build relationships that will take you beyond college and throughout your career “
ITWomen Scholarship Benefits
$8,000 Scholarship
Recipients receive $8,000 scholarship dispensed over four years to pursue IT or Engineering degrees. We are grateful to our corporate partners for our ability to fund these scholarships.
Special mention to Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits for their Multi-Year Scholarship Partnership and AKAMAI, our Multi-Year Summer Robotics Camp Partner. Our free Robotics camps often inspire girls in middle and high school to go on to dream of the many careers that tech offers.
Invaluable Mentorship
Mentorship is a critical part of ITWomen’s scholarship program. Our longtime Mentor Chair Margaret Brisbane, CIO of Miami Dade County has had the pleasure of watching her own mentee grow her career as a Software Engineer at Northrup Grumman, while seeing her graduate, get married, and even have her first child over the past 10 years.
Goody Bags for First-Year Dorm Essentials
Tiffany Thompson from Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits presented our Goody Bags to help our scholars start their college journey.
ITWomen fills the bags with dorm essentials such as must-have Keurig Coffee Pots and inspirational gifts such as the best-seller book by former Google exec Allana Karen, The Adventures of Women in Tech. The book is filled with inside stories from women working in the field.
Quarterly Zooms with Female Tech Leaders
We bring all our current scholars together for a 45-minute Zoom session with guest speakers – usually from a top company seeking interns. The most current Zoom in May welcomed Nicole Fernandez-Valle, Lead Talent Acquisition Partner with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines about seeking roles in post grad careers. These chats are also invaluable for our students to connect with each other and share tips on colleges, interviews, courses and more.
Special Thank Yous
THANK YOU to our ITWomen Board Members and supporters. Great Shout Out to our Scholarship Selection Committee members Tiffany Thompson, Shawna Cartwright and Susan Clemmons, PhD. These volunteers work with me each year to evaluate the incredible applicants and ultimately make the hard choices as to which students will receive our investment.
Extra Special Shout Outs to Sharon Moura, Barbara Russo, Jen Arbeleaz, Jen Boyer, Alejandro Lorenzo, and Claire Marrero for donating prized Amazon gift cards, personal protection devices, and the indispensable Laundry Bags and Shower Caddies for the send-off Goody Bags.
About ITWomen
ITWomen was launched here in South Florida in 2002 by a group of passionate female technology leaders who came together to work on narrowing the gender gap in technology.
As a volunteer group we have developed and launched a variety of programs, including:
- Role Model Speaker program delivered at middle and high schools,
- FREE Summer Robotics and Coding Camps
- ITWomen Scholarship program
— Claire Marrero
ITWomen President, Board Chair