By Sarah Hacker
Fourteen years ago, Bill Bloom ’85 looked out over the large IT team he managed and noticed there were far fewer women than men on his staff. That didn’t sit well with him. As an executive in information technology and the father of two daughters, he felt he was in a position to help change the gender imbalance in his field.
He thought about his own path. “My four years at Albany truly laid the foundation for all the good things that followed,” Bloom says. “I graduated in '85 with a degree in computer science and my entire career has been around technology.” Committed to helping more women follow in his footsteps, Bloom and his wife, Maria, established The Bill Bloom ’85 and Maria Bloom Women in Technology Scholarship at UAlbany.
The Bloom Scholarship provides significant financial support to female undergraduate students from the five boroughs of New York City who are studying in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
“As a kid from Queens in the early 1980s, my family couldn't contribute to the cost of my education. However, I was able to pay for a great four years at Albany by ‘simply’ taking out a small loan and doing some work-study,” Bloom explains. But he knows that today, many students are faced with taking on much higher levels of debt to complete their education. “Through this scholarship, Maria and I decided that we'd try to help a few students each year by taking some of that burden from them.”
And they have. Sydney Pennington, a computer science major and current recipient of the Bloom Women in Technology Scholarship, couldn’t be more grateful for the assistance the Blooms have provided. Being able to worry less about money and focus on schoolwork “just feels really comforting and gives me more stability,” she says.
But being a Bloom Scholar is about more than defraying the cost of college. For Pennington, it’s also about feeling encouraged as someone who is underrepresented in her field of study. “Finding other women, especially Black women, in technology can be hard,” she says. She’s been able to form a tight cohort at UAlbany, but also finds it inspiring that there are people like the Blooms who want “to help younger people move ahead and make an impact in the field as well.”
Since establishing their scholarship in 2009, The Blooms have continued to grow the endowment considerably to maximize its impact for recipients like Pennington. Bill Bloom recently retired as EVP of Technology, Data & Analytics, Operations and Claims from The Hartford Financial Services Group, and in a fitting sendoff, the company made a $25,000 gift to the scholarship in his honor. Today, Bill and Maria Bloom remain committed to advancing gender equity for women in technology.
By Sarah Hacker
Fourteen years ago, Bill Bloom ’85 looked out over the large IT team he managed and noticed there were far fewer women than men on his staff. That didn’t sit well with him. As an executive in information technology and the father of two daughters, he felt he was in a position to help change the gender imbalance in his field.
He thought about his own path. “My four years at Albany truly laid the foundation for all the good things that followed,” Bloom says. “I graduated in '85 with a degree in computer science and my entire career has been around technology.” Committed to helping more women follow in his footsteps, Bloom and his wife, Maria, established The Bill Bloom ’85 and Maria Bloom Women in Technology Scholarship at UAlbany.
The Bloom Scholarship provides significant financial support to female undergraduate students from the five boroughs of New York City who are studying in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
“As a kid from Queens in the early 1980s, my family couldn't contribute to the cost of my education. However, I was able to pay for a great four years at Albany by ‘simply’ taking out a small loan and doing some work-study,” Bloom explains. But he knows that today, many students are faced with taking on much higher levels of debt to complete their education. “Through this scholarship, Maria and I decided that we'd try to help a few students each year by taking some of that burden from them.”
And they have. Sydney Pennington, a computer science major and current recipient of the Bloom Women in Technology Scholarship, couldn’t be more grateful for the assistance the Blooms have provided. Being able to worry less about money and focus on schoolwork “just feels really comforting and gives me more stability,” she says.
But being a Bloom Scholar is about more than defraying the cost of college. For Pennington, it’s also about feeling encouraged as someone who is underrepresented in her field of study. “Finding other women, especially Black women, in technology can be hard,” she says. She’s been able to form a tight cohort at UAlbany, but also finds it inspiring that there are people like the Blooms who want “to help younger people move ahead and make an impact in the field as well.”
Since establishing their scholarship in 2009, The Blooms have continued to grow the endowment considerably to maximize its impact for recipients like Pennington. Bill Bloom recently retired as EVP of Technology, Data & Analytics, Operations and Claims from The Hartford Financial Services Group, and in a fitting sendoff, the company made a $25,000 gift to the scholarship in his honor. Today, Bill and Maria Bloom remain committed to advancing gender equity for women in technology.
