This is a guest blog post written by Avanade alum, Vikki Leach.

As Avanade celebrates its 15-year anniversary, we look ahead to increase our dedication to corporate citizenship. And I’m delighted to be leading the corporate citizenship mission for Avanade.  It is a great privilege to demonstrate our commitment to opening doors for young women who may not have otherwise continued their education.

Our mission is to close the gender, technology and income gaps for women and to empower, provide access and upskill women in the communities where Avanade operates.

Emphasizing the Importance of STEM for Women

The underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines is an issue of concern all over the world as few women participate in these disciplines.  This is a complex issue and there is no single, simple answer.

At Avanade, we are working to encourage more women to consider a career in STEM. We strongly believe a greater emphasis on STEM education is at least a big part of the solution — it will help more women go into technology and succeed in this great field.

That’s why I’m extremely excited to launch our new 15 for 15 Avanade Scholarship Program, which is a first step in achieving our goals (read the official press release). In our 15th year of business, we have set out to sponsor 15 scholarships for young women. We will follow it up with another 15 scholarships in 2016, and again in 2017, enabling our lucky recipients to receive education in the STEM field that will help kick-start their future careers.

Avanade is currently partnered with three universities to make this wonderful program come alive:

• Cal Poly Pomona, USA
• University College London, UK
• University Pretoria, South Africa

We are also providing opportunities for Avanade employees to get involved through scholar mentoring and community support for the young women as their education and careers grow. Avanade’s CEO, Adam Warby, offers full support and dedication to our mission and has helped make it a real possibility to positively impact the gender, technology and income gaps.

With my many years of experience in both diversity and inclusion and corporate citizenship, I greatly believe everyone has a talent. It's about empowering, giving access and upskilling individuals to help them realize their potential.

I believe mentoring and the opportunity to work in real-world situations is crucial to these young individuals in helping develop their aspirations to work in the technology industry.