Park Place Technologies sponsors Irish students in U.S. with Inspiring Women in Stem

Park Place Technologies is hosting two students from Cork, Ireland, in the United States for its first externship sponsorship with I WISH (Inspiring Women in STEM).

I Wish (Inspiring Women In Stem) is an initiative to inspire, encourage and motivate young female students to pursue careers in STEM. I Wish has grown over the past five years, delivering the important message to a distinct audience about the value of careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to female transition year students. With support from the public and private partners, I Wish will reach thousands of girls from across Ireland, and their teachers, at events in Dublin and Cork in 2020. The Cork event takes place at City Hall on January 30th and 31st. The Dublin event runs at the RDS on the 3rd and 4th of February 2020. I Wish is a unique event combining talks and engagement with female role models (superstars and graduates) with interactive exhibition spaces where industry engages students directly through live experiments and demonstrations of what they actually do. I Wish delivers change empowering and enabling the next generation of leaders and innovators and ensuring new technologies will finally reflect the diversity of all users.

Emma Brennan, from Cork Institute of Technology, and Amy Dolan, from University College in Cork, have been chosen from numerous entrants across Ireland to win a 10-day externship with Park Place Technologies including an all-expenses paid trip to North America. The students will visit Park Place Technologies offices in Boston, Massachusetts and Cleveland, Ohio to work with mentors within the firm, gain insight into career opportunities and what working in a technology business is like, and participate in leadership training to develop their communication skills. At the end of the placement, both winners will deliver a capstone presentation, “Recommendations for Future Digital Service Delivery Methods and Channels” to Management and C-Suite Executives.

The STEM competition was announced in February by Ireland Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tanaiste Simon Coveney at the I WISH Alumni Association launch. I WISH is an Ireland-based initiative to inspire, encourage and motivate young female students to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The program has reached more than 17,000 students since 2015.

“The lack of female participation in STEM [science, technology, engineering, mathematics] means we are leaving 50% of the talent pool behind. The opportunity for women in Irish and global STEM careers is unlimited,” said Park Place Chief Marketing Officer Jennifer Deutsch. As a leader in the field, we believe we have a responsibility to help address this imbalance and this is one of the key reasons we set up this initiative in partnership with the IDA and I WISH.”

“I am honored to have been selected onto this placement and have the opportunity to gain valuable experience with a company that is so passionate about innovation. The theory one learn at college is of course important, but this will give me the opportunity to experience first-hand what a career in STEM is really like and I can’t wait to get started,” said Brennan.

Dolan commented: “I’m so grateful to have been chosen as I can imagine the competition was fierce for such an opportunity like this. I am both nervous and incredibly excited and want to make sure I make the most of this unique opportunity. I hope I will look back on this moment in the years to come as the catalyst for my career in STEM.”

The STEM initiative more strengthens Park Place Technologies’ investment into Ireland’s technology sector, following the opening of its Operations Centre in Cork in November 2018, pledging to create 70 jobs in two years.

Founded in 1991, Park Place Technologies provides a post-warranty alternative to storage, server and networking hardware maintenance for IT data centers. With 24/7 access to a global contact center, support from the industry’s most advanced engineers and a wide array of industry leading and award-winning services such as ParkView^TM, Park Place Technologies empowers its customers to improve operational speed and maximize uptime. With more than 16,000 customers, including all tier-one OEMs, Park Place Technologies’ services are spread across 55,000 data centers in more than 141 countries.