Progress Announces the 2022 Recipients of its Women in STEM Scholarship Series

BURLINGTON, Mass., June 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Progress (Nasdaq: PRGS), the trusted provider of infrastructure software, today announced the 2022 recipients of the Mary Székely Scholarship for Women in STEM (US) and the Women in Tech Scholarship (Bulgaria), both part of the larger Progress Women in STEM Scholarship series. Established in 2019, the scholarship series was created to increase the global representation of those who identify as women in the fields of computer science, software engineering, IT and/or computer information systems and to ease the burden of educational costs for deserving women studying to pursue careers in STEM fields. 

“Every year we have the honor of speaking with a group of phenomenal young women, all of whom want to pursue a career in STEM because they seek to make an impact,” said Yogesh Gupta, CEO, Progress. “This year’s candidates are no exception. They are incredibly bright, ambitious and socially responsible. We’re confident they will succeed in achieving their goals, and we are so proud that we get to play a small part in helping them do so.”

Mary Székely Scholarship for Women in STEM
In honor of Mary Székely, one of Progress’ founders and creator of Progress® OpenEdge® application development platform, the Progress Software Mary Székely Scholarship for Women in STEM is a 4-year renewable scholarship for Massachusetts residents who identify as women and are planning to major in computer science, software engineering, IT and/or computer information systems.

This year’s recipient, Yiming Fang, is a graduate of the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science, Worcester, MA and will double major in computer science and business administration at Carnegie Mellon. A National Honor Society member, Yiming excelled academically and during her high school years was founder and captain of her school’s first all-girls robotics team. She was also part of project teams that created a mobile app serving the visually impaired and worked to develop a mobile app helping diabetes patients monitor their blood pressure and glucose levels.

Outside of school, Yiming founded a Scratch coding club for third graders and later expanded the scope of the club to become a formal non-profit organization—Free Urban Extracurricular Learning (FUEL). In addition, she participated in VRC Robotics Community Service where she raised funds for the Malala Fund, mentored an elementary school VEX IQ team, the world’s largest robotics competition, and started a VEX mentoring series for middle schoolers.

Women in Tech Scholarship Program, Bulgaria
Expanded in 2022, the Women in Tech Scholarship Program in Bulgaria now includes two new annual scholarships for women in their second, third or fourth year at accredited universities studying computer science, software engineering, IT and/or computer information systems or similar fields. This year’s recipients are both exemplary students and participants in Europe’s Erasmus+ Youth Exchange program.

Vasilena Krazheva is a computer science major at St. Kliment Ohridski, University of Sofia, and is a graduate of the Plovdiv High School of Mathematics. She has interned at technology companies including Europweb Group, Bisoft and Orak Engineering. Vasilena also served her community volunteering to implement Google Suite for Education at the Tsar Ivan Assen II Vocational Secondary School during the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring children were able to continue their education in a remote setting.

Tsvetelina Stefanova is a computer systems and technologies major at Angel Kanchev University of Ruse. She is a member of the Hall of Fame of the International Linguistics Olympiad, winner of the “Student of the Year” National Prize for 2021.

Akanksha Scholarship for Women in STEM, India
The class of 2022 scholarship recipients also includes Akhila Karanam, the first recipient of the Progress Software Akanksha Scholarship for Women in STEM in India. Akhila is a second-year student at Keshav Memorial Institute of Technology, where she is pursuing a degree in computer science and engineering.

The second annual application process for the Akanksha scholarship will open later this year and recipients will be announced in early 2023. For updates about the application process and timeline, visit the Progress Women in STEM Scholarship Series webpage.

The Women in STEM Scholarship Series
Employee diversity spurs innovation. To advance this ideal, Progress established The Progress Women in STEM Scholarship series to increase the global representation of those who identify as women in the fields of computer science, software engineering, IT and/or computer information systems. We offer three distinct scholarship programs in countries where we have our largest employee presence:

• The Mary Székely Scholarship for Women in STEM (US) launched in 2019
• The Women in Tech Scholarship (Bulgaria) launched in 2020
• The Akanksha Scholarship for Women in STEM (India) launched in 2021
  

The Progress Women in STEM Scholarship series is part of the Progress for Tomorrow Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program: https://www.progress.com/social-responsibility. Learn more about Progress for Tomorrow on our website or read the company’s 2021 Corporate Social Responsibility Report.

Explore career opportunities at https://www.progress.com/company/careers.

About Progress
Dedicated to propelling business forward in a technology-driven world, Progress (Nasdaq: PRGS) helps businesses drive faster cycles of innovation, fuel momentum and accelerate their path to success. As the trusted provider of the best products to develop, deploy and manage high-impact applications, Progress enables customers to develop the applications and experiences they need, deploy where and how they want and manage it all safely and securely. Hundreds of thousands of enterprises, including 1,700 software companies and 3.5 million developers, depend on Progress to achieve their goals—with confidence. Learn more at www.progress.com and follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.   

Progress and OpenEdge are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation and/or one of its subsidiaries or affiliates in the US and other countries. Any other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

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Progress                                                                          
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