For Sponsors


Thank you to our sponsors and supporters!

A donation is a wonderful way to support our program! Your gift will help us recruit teachers and guest speakers, host the students, develop our curricular materials, and continue to show students that computer science can be a fun, collaborative and creative field.

We Need YOUR Support!

A donation is a wonderful way to support our program! Your gift will help us recruit teachers and guest speakers, host the students, develop our curricular materials, and continue to show students that computer science can be a fun, collaborative and creative field.

To contribute, please explore our sponsorship levels below and contact Amanda Chow or Natasha Shams.

Gigabyte Sponsor

Donation Amount: $1000 (funds 2 participants)

Sponsors perks at this level include:

  • Company logo on website
  • Company logo on shirt
  • Distribution of company promotional materials to participants during KickStart week
  • Sending a representative for our KickStart Week Industry Panel (if space available)

Terabyte Sponsor

Donation Amount: $2500 (funds 5 participants)

Sponsors perks at this level include:

  • All Gigabyte sponsor perks
  • Holding a workshop during school year with CS KickStart alumni (former participants throughout the years)
  • Resume book with resumes from CS KickStart alumni throughout the years

Petabyte Sponsor

Donation Amount: $5000 (funds 10 participants)

Sponsors perks at this level include:

  • All Gigabyte and Terabyte sponsor perks
  • Field trip to company during the school year
  • Additional workshop during the year (2 workshops total)
  • The opportunity to send updates about upcoming events, opportunities, and news about your company on our CS KickStart mailing list unlimited times throughout the year. This offers a long term relationship with the students.
  • Sponsored mini event during Kickstart Week (e.g. Scavenger Hunt, Hackathon/Hack Night)
  • Exclusive Networking Dinner with CS KickStart alumni

Custom Donation

If your company is interested in donating more than $5000, please let us know and we can discuss how to create a sponsorship package that best suits your company’s interests.


NCWIT Grant

We are proud to announce that we were awarded the NCWIT Academic Alliance Seed Fund Grant sponsored by Microsoft Research and the National Center for Women & Information Technology. This $10,000 grant provides U.S. academic institutions with start-up funds to develop and implement initiatives that recruit and retain women in computing and technology fields of study. Since 2007, NCWIT and Microsoft Research have awarded $415,450 in funding to 34 universities and colleges over nine funding rounds. The NCWIT Academic Alliance Seed Fund will provide $10,000 each to the following five U.S. institutions: Auburn University: Computer Science for All Girls, Columbia University: The Artemis Project, Livingstone College: Bridge Program in Technology, Southern Illinois University: Android Development Camp for Middle School Girls, University of California at Berkeley: CS KickStart.

Women in STEM

Women currently earn more than half of all undergraduate degrees in the U.S., including 45% of math degrees and 38% of chemical engineering degrees, but nationwide they earn only 18% of computing and information sciences degrees. High school women account for 47% of all Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus test-takers, but only 19% of those who take the Computer Science AP test are women. At UC Berkeley, only 11.3% of EECS majors are female.

Goals of CS KickStart

CS KickStart builds upon the best practices in computer science education research to inspire, empower, inform, connect, and mentor women that may pursue computer science. This is achieved through a one week introductory class to computer science. Students learn how to program, meet computer science students and professionals, and are introduced to different areas of computer science. This program targets incoming students to UC Berkeley who are curious about computer science and are interested in math, science or engineering. Students do not need to have any prior skills in programming. Our goal is to give them a hands-on experience in programming and to show them the creativity and power of computer science.

About NCWIT

NCWIT is a national coalition of over 350 prominent corporations, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profits working to increase the participation of women in technology and computing. NCWIT's work connects efforts to increase women's participation in technology along the entire pipeline, from K-12 and higher education through industry, academic, and entrepreneurial careers. The NCWIT Academic Alliance brings together more than 600 representatives from computer science and IT departments at colleges and universities across the country - spanning research universities, community colleges, women's colleges, and minority serving institutions - to work towards gender equity, diversity, and institutional change in computing higher education. Find out more at www.ncwit.org.


What is the schedule like for CS Kickstart Week?

Here is a link to last year's schedule. This year will follow a similar structure.

When is the industry panel?

This year, the panel is on Tuesday, August 20th, from 5:00-6:30pm. Panelists are also encouraged to attend dinner with CS KickStarters afterwards.

What will the industry panel be like?

We ask panelists to share with our students what led them to work in software development and engineering and offer advice for students who are also interested in a technical career. There will be several prepared questions from the organizers, followed by Q&A from the CS KickStart participants.

My company wants to send a panelist! What do I do next?

Please let your CS KickStart contact know that your company is interested in sending a panelist. Please keep in mind that spots on the industry panel are limited and we generally give priority to our sponsors. Let us know how many representatives from your company are interested in coming and what their contact information is.

My company is donating! When and where do we send the check?

We accept donations year-round. However, in order to be featured on the current year’s website and t-shirts, a donation should be sent by no later than May 1st of the current year. The check should be sent to:

CS KickStart
387 Soda Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1776

One of our organizers will send you a confirmation once we receive the check.

What does hosting a field trip for CS Kickstart entail?

There are around 30 participants and 10 volunteers that come on the industry field trip. Due to limitations of traveling with a large group, in the past we have only visited companies located in San Francisco. Some suggested field trip activities include giving short office tours, giving informal employee presentations, and providing mingling time for employees and CS Kickstarters. But feel free to have fun with it! CS Kickstart can help you work out a field trip schedule and organize transportation to your offices.

My company is interested in hosting a field trip! How do we get in on this?

Thank you for your interest! Some years, more than one company will invite our group for a visit. First, double check that the date and times of the industry trip work for your company. Then, let us know about your interest and the location of your office, and we will get back to you when we have finalized our field trip location.