Google, Howard University Launch Program For Black Students

In a bid to promote diversity and create a structure to provide black students with better careers in the technology industry, Google has partnered with Howard University in Washington, D.C., to launch the Howard West Program, the company announced Thursday on its official blog. The tech giant unveiled the program that will see black software engineers from “historically black colleges and universities” studying at the Google campus at Silicon Valley.

“When I joined Google a decade ago, there was hardly any discussion of diversity in tech. “Howard West” is now the centerpiece of Google’s effort to recruit more black software engineers from Historically Black Colleges and Universities — and to make them feel right at home here in Mountain View,” Bonita Stewart, Google’s vice president for global partnerships, said in the blog.

The three-month program at the Google campus will be open to seniors and juniors enrolled for the computer science course at Howard. The university said a stipend will help students with housing and other expenses.

The program will start this summer with 25 students, and is expected to include networking sessions with Howard alumni. Even though it begins with Howard, Google aims to expand to other universities and schools. It is aimed at increasing the low number of black employees at Google. According to the company’s recent diversity report, it has only 2 percent black employees in the U.S., of which only half are doing actual technology-related work.

“We’ve learned a lot about the hurdles black students face in acquiring full-time work in the tech industry. The lack of exposure, access to mentors and role models are critical gaps that Howard West will solve,” said Stewart.

In September last year, Google teamed up with several organizations to encourage young women to pursue career opportunities with the tech company as part of the Made with Code initiative. Earlier in July, the company also teamed up with Black Girls Code to encourage coding among women.