HI All,

We had a fantastic presentation at Hale HS.

The presenters were just amazing. We had a small turnout, but the girls were very interested in hearing the women, so it was all okay.

I want to thank the magnificent women who presented today. Thank you to Nora Duffy (Avanade), Michee Holland (Microsoft), Divya Narayanan (Microsoft), and Mickey Pierce (Microsoft). I want to welcome the new volunteers to IGNITE, wow you are all wonderful!! Eileen O'Rielly-MIller (Microsoft), Rebecca Grant (Engineer - Boeing), and Sheri Hashemi (Rocket Scientist - Boeing). It was such a special event. All of you are amazing women and we are all so fortunate to have you in IGNITE. You all told your story in such a way that the girls can relate and feel connected to you and your journey. Now they can see themselves finding their way, because of you. Thank you all !

Thank you to the wonderful Career Center Specialist, Cathy Hagood, for recruiting the girls and being a great IGNITE partner.

Here are the comments from the girls evaluation forms and they always say it best.

• I like how there were different points of views on various careers were described. This helped give me a bigger perspective on the whole technology industry. The most interesting thing I heard was the new fields that was introduced in the lecture, like Areospace Engineering, Hydraulics etc. I have never heard about them before. I love to meet new people with different careers in technology, because I didn't realize there were so many.
• I liked hearing the personal stories- especially when they said they never thought they would be a part of the tech field and here they are! It is incredible that Sheri is 22 and completely self- sufficient. More events like this.
• What I liked most was learning how they got into college and ended up with their jobs.
• I liked that many women came from different minorities to talk to us today. The most interesting thing I heard today was that there are a lot of opportunities for women to work in any field.
• I really liked pretty much everything. It was plenty informative just to hear about their backgrounds. The advice was very helpful.
• I liked being able to hear from women about their jobs.
• I liked learning life lessons that would be useful in any career, ( be independent, be assertive,) and I loved hearing the different stories about how women got into technology.
• I loved when I heard everyone's story. I loved hearing about airplanes, because I love airplanes too and now I love IGNITE. The most interesting thing today was hearing about the scholarships.
• I am very thankful to hear so many successful and financially stable women speak. That life style is very like-able.
• It was helpful to hear how each of the speakers made the transition from high school or college to a technical career. It was also comforting to hear that not all technical specialists were good at math. I think this event was good, it was already perfect.
• I liked the diversity of skill and background of the panel of speakers and listening to what inspired each of them to go into the technology field was rewarding.
• I think the best part would be when the guest speakers talked about their experiences of how they found out their interests and how they achieved them. It really helped me clear my view that anyone can be a good engineer no matter if your a female or a male.
• The speakers were great. Really inspirational and knowledgeable. They were very personal and genuine. I didn't know the amount of opportunities that there are in this field for women. I really want to learn more! Thank you .

Thank you all for making the time for the girls. It really makes a difference.

Thank you,
Cathi
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