Apple Inc. To Award 350 Students WWDC Scholarships

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Apple cares about the future of technology and wants to encourage young people to get involved in STEM-based programs. The tech giant just announced plans to increase the number of students who will receive Worldwide Developers’ Conference scholarships.

Apple expands scholarship program

The WWDC scholarships are awarded to students and developers so they can attend the annual event. Apple uses these events to introduce new iOS and OS X versions prior to their releases. Apple sometimes unveils new products during the events, but that isn’t always the case.

In 2014, Apple gave 200 scholarships, working with the National Center for Women & IT. This year, Apple expanded to 20 organizations and 350 scholarships. The list of this year’s organizations Apple teamed up with include App Camp for Girls, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Latinos in Information, Women Who Code and more.

Apple wants to diversify the tech industry, which is primarily dominated by white males. The company’s recent diversity report indicates that only 30% of the company’s employee roster is female. Women hold only 20% of the company’s tech positions. Fifty-five percent of Apple’s workforce is white, and 15% is Asian. Also 11% of the company’s employees are Hispanic, while 7% are African-American.

Apple strives to encourage diversity

Apple understands that limited diversity could affect its bottom line in a negative way. A diverse group of employees ensures representation of everyone. One example of this is Apple’s introduction of the HealthKit. Although it includes a lot of useful features related to health, including sleep, fitness,and heart rate, it doesn’t track specific female health issues like menstruation. This issue is just one example of the things missed thanks to the lack of female employees.

The Cupertino-based tech giant hopes to change all of that by offering more groups a chance to join the fun at WWDC. According to Apple, the scholarships are open to students, members and alumni of the STEM groups on the list. The scholarships are available to anyone 13 and older. They don’t have to be a member of the tech giant’s developer program either.

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