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Martha Guse '41
Martha Guse '41
In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the United States Information Agency – essentially a global public relations effort to spread positive messages about democracy in the fight against communism.
Martha Guse '41 was on the frontline of that campaign. "It was her life's greatest accomplishment," says her brother Carl Guse, in remembering his sister who passed away in February 2017.
"She felt it was the graduate degree from Drexel that allowed her to take that next step in her career,'' Carl explains. "That's why she felt an obligation to support other Drexel students and help them to enjoy the same opportunities that she had.
She established the Marie Hamilton Law Scholarship Fund to benefit graduate students in the College of Computing and Informatics, and she made a bequest gift to ensure that the fund would help generations of students to come. Her enduring legacy will enable CCI to better compete for the best students, further strengthening the quality of the College and elevating its reputation.
"Martha felt an obligation to give back to Drexel because her education allowed her to take on the duties that she did – to function overseas and open up American libraries in four different countries,'' Carl says.
Martha was a little over 100 years old when she passed away, and she and her siblings were raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She earned a bachelor's degree at Kalamazoo College and then attended Drexel, where she earned a graduate degree in library sciences from the College of Information Science and Technology, now known as CCI.
After a brief stint at the Philadelphia Public Library, she signed on with the U.S. Information Agency. As part of that initiative, she opened and operated libraries in Japan, Iran and Germany, before returning to the U.S. to work at the agency's U.S. headquarters in D.C.
"She was always a very independent woman,'' Carl says. "I think she probably got some of that from her time at Drexel, too.''
As a woman in information and technology, Martha was a trailblazer. She embodies CCI's historic and ongoing commitment to positioning women for success in a discipline where they continue to be underrepresented. Women represent only 16 percent of computer science bachelor degree recipients nationally, and an even lower proportion of professionals in the information and technology field. To address this issue, CCI launched its Women in Computing Initiative.
"Our Women in Computing Initiative aims to provide sustainable solutions to improve gender diversity in information and technology at a large scale," says CCI Dean Yi Deng. "With the support of our corporate partners, this initiative is helping to tip the balance of the female tech talent supply while building a future workforce. Our goals are to provide 100 scholarships to women students and to increase enrollment of female undergraduate students at CCI by 50 percent within the next five years. By bolstering our diversity and inclusion outreach, and with the continued improvement of our curriculum, opportunities and resources, we are confident CCI will play a major role in producing the next generation of leaders to impact industry and beyond."
Students like Blessing Adogame, an Information Systems major, represent a new generation of women blazing trails in the discipline. She is a founder of the "FreshWomen Cohort Program," which provides students with a personal support system throughout their years at Drexel.
"The Women in Computing campaign that CCI has implemented is both important and necessary when it comes to empowering female students to pursue all things tech," Blessing say. "Being a woman in a technical world where men dominate can be daunting, but the Women in Computing campaign has created opportunities for female students and has continued to encourage and motivate students pursuing a technical major."