Scholly and Google are offering $10K scholarships for BIPOC women in tech

Scholarship connection app Scholly has partnered with Google to create a new scholarship for women from marginalized communities of color in tech.

The Women of Color In Tech $10,000 Scholarship, which opened applications this month, is a scholarship for collegiate BIPOC women pursuing computer science or related majors. The partner companies set aside $200,000 for 20 women, meaning that selected applicants will receive $10,000 for their degree. Applications are open until March 31.

Christopher Gray, Scholly’s founder and CEO who recently relocated to run the company from downtown DC, said that the scholarship is intended to boost the pipeline and help BIPOC reach tech careers.

“This partnership with Google is really part of our larger strategy to empower brands and celebrities and other organizations to be able to deploy capital and impact the kind of people they want to serve in these scholarships,” Gray told Technical.ly. 

With the scholarship, Gray hopes to bring more women into computer science and affiliated professions, especially as less than 19% of computer science bachelor’s degrees were awarded to women in 2021. But in applicants, he said, he’s really looking for those not only interested in tech, but also those who are looking to become founders and entrepreneurs in the space.

Peta-Gay Clarke and Shameeka Emanuel, both managers for Code Next, Google’s program for Black, Latinx and Indigenous high school students, noted the need to support BIPOC women in computer science.

“As Black women in tech, we know first-hand the challenges women of color face along their education journey,” Clarke and Emanuel said in a statement. “We’ve seen so many young women change their trajectory or cut their education short due to financial hardships. Our hope is that this scholarship will not only provide needed support to young women but bring more awareness to these unique challenges and evangelize others to invest in women of color in tech.”

While Scholly is still largely remote, and will likely stay that way for the near future, Gray said that the move to DC has inspired him to make an impact on the market. He hopes that as we (hopefully) emerge from the pandemic, the company can get back to hosting events and making local connections.

“What you see in DC is that it is a growing scene, but it is fragmented,” said Gray, who first launched the company from Philly in 2013 (and nabbed a feature on “Shark Tank“). “So I think that there’s an opportunity to bring a lot of people together, collaborate and learn from each other. And now that the world’s opening back up, I think there’s going to be a lot of time to do events more and join with other organizations to scale that community.”

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