Southfield, Mich. – Annika Scott of University High School in Ferndale has won the second annual website design contest of ­­the Michigan Council of Women in Technology Foundation (MCWTF). Renita Adams and Shahnaj Begum of Golightly Technical School in Detroit took second and third place.

All three high school students live in Detroit.

The contest held at Lawrence Technological University on Dec. 8 was the culmination of a two-month competition for designing and developing websites based on the theme, “my hometown.” The websites were evaluated on communication, clarity, functionality, graphic appeal, user-friendly navigation and innovation. The top prize was $500.

The contest, which is sponsored by Refresh Detroit and Lawrence Tech, was established to inspire creative development and teach technology principles. The high school girls began working on their websites after attending two free educational seminars hosted by Davenport University and Lawrence Tech. These students have demonstrated talent for HTML coding and web page development, according to MCWTF President Rosemary Bayer, a business development executive for Sun Microsystems Inc.

“We hope to spark their interest in continuing their education in technology,” Bayer said.

The Michigan Council of Women in Technology Foundation is a 501(c) 3 organization dedicated to correcting the dramatically growing trend of gender disparity in the information technology field. The foundation accomplishes this by attacking the problem at several of its roots – the education and orientation of young women throughout school, and the fostering of women in various stages of their professional lives – with a variety of educational and inspirational programs and support. For more information, please visit www.mcwtf.org.

Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, offers more than 60 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degree programs in Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Management. Founded in 1932, the 5,000-student, private university pioneered evening classes 75 years ago, and today has a growing number of weekend and online programs. Lawrence Tech’s 102-acre campus is in Southfield, with education centers in Livonia, Clinton Township, Traverse City and Petoskey. Lawrence Tech also offers programs with partner universities in Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia.