Company:Dream it. Code it. Win it.
Company Description:Dream it. Code it. Win it., founded by Cristina Dolan as a volunteer, to encourage global student diversity in computer science education. The yearly competition rewards students for creativity in problem solving with computer science with $70,000 in prizes. The competition attracted a diverse pool of student participants, including 50% female participation for the 2nd year & launched 4 companies
Nomination Category:Company/Organization Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category:Organization of the Year – Government or Non-Profit– 10 or Less Employees

Nomination Title:Dream it. Code it. Win it.

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated organization since the beginning of July last year (up to 525 words):TEXT REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION

Dream it. Code it. Win it. is run by volunteers to promote computer science education by celebrating creativity in problem solving with computer science. The second annual Dream it. Code it. Win it. was launched in the fall of 2014 and $70,000 in prizes was raised through the year and given to the student winners on April 30th 2015. The competition attracted a diverse group of students which included a 50% female participation for the second year in a row.

Cristina Dolan created the yearly global competition Dream it. Code it. Win it. as a way to demonstrate to students that if they develop skills in computer science and look for problems to solve with coding skills, they can have a rewarding career regardless of the path they choose. (She does this all as a volunteer, mother and full time job at a software company.) Over the course of the year, Cristina does all the fund raising ($70k in prizes and $20K for event expenses), marketing, student outreach, competition submission tool setup, volunteer recruitment, media outreach (get reporters to the celebration event), awards ceremony production, media outreach for the student participants, panelists and marketing to fill over 600 seats – and much more.

Problem: There is a gender gap with only 18% of female Computer Science graduates; there is also a wage gap because women tend not to choose engineering which offers higher wages than other disciplines. In addition, 40% of recent college graduates across the country are unemployed with student loans. Dream it. Code it. Win it. focuses on both ‘problem solving’ as an approach to creating opportunities and solving problems, as well as, demonstrating that computer science can be a creative, rewarding and fun skill regardless of the area of study. For the second year in a row, the 2015 Dream it. Code it. Win it. Competition attracted a diverse group of students which included a majority (50%) of female students and granted nearly $70,000 in prizes and numerous prizes to the winners.

The first Dream it. Code it. Win it. was announced in the fall of 2013 and the competition was launched in January of 2014 and ended with an Awards Ceremony with Industry Visionaries and Celebration on April 30th, 2014 with $70k in prizes. After July 2014, four teams of finalists got funded and launched companies, benefiting from introduction made by Dream it. Code it. Win it. The 2nd Annual Dream it. Code it. Win it. was announced in the fall of 2014 and nearly $70,000 in student prizes were raised (with an additional $20,000 for event costs) . The student competition launched in January 2015 through an online portal and concluded with the selection of finalists https://dreamitcodeitwinit.wordpress.com/finalists-2015/ by a panel of judges.

The winners were announced in April 2015 and prizes were presented at Awards Ceremony on April 30th 2015 with over 600 attendees and panelists with Industry luminaries which included the NSF director of Diversity and several CEO/Founders with background in Computer Science. Hundreds of students participated from all over the world including the Middle East.

Provide a brief biography of the person or persons who lead the nominated company (up to 125 words):

Cristina Dolan founded and has run Dream it. Code it. Win it. as a volunteer for two consecutive years raising prize money, marketing and running the large celebration event with hundreds of student submissions and over 600 attendees at awards ceremony 4/30/2015.
https://dreamitcodeitwinit.wordpress.com/category/news/
https://dreamitcodeitwinit.wordpress.com/finalists-2015/
https://dreamitcodeitwinit.wordpress.com/picture-gallery/

Cristina is an MIT Media Lab alumna and Internet pioneer with over two decades of experience building software, content, and Internet based products and businesses. She was a co-founder of OneMain.com, which grew to be the 10th largest ISP after a successful IPO (Acquired by Earthlink).1 Currently, Dolan serves as the Head of Content and Communication at TradingScreen where she works full time in addition to her volunteer work. She is a mother of two young boys.

Choose one (even if both apply):

The CEO (or other principal manager) of this company is a woman, and at least 40% of the management team is comprised of women.