Hi All

We had a wonderful Presentation event at Ballard. The Presenters did such a great job! And the girls really enjoyed themselves and were very enthusiastic about being in IGNITE and doing many more activities.

We had new volunteers who were so natural at this, I never could tell it was the first time on the panel for us! Pam and Anne did such a nice ppt that was about there personal stories. Pam was so kind to give that template to us so that other volunteers can use it if they want to.

I will put it on the website for anyone's use. Thank you Pam!!!

I want to thank the wonderful women who presented.

Thank you to Kathie Flood, Video Game Producer, MIcrosoft, and welcome to our new members, Anne Kelso, Recruiter, Microsoft, ( thank you Anne for bringing those great gifts that we gave out for the great questions that the girls asked)!!!Pam Policastri,Test Lead, Microsoft, Chenelle Bremont, Release Manager XBOX, Microsoft, and Gina Nakamura, Outreach Coordinator, Seattle Central Community College, You all were so wonderful and really did such a great job in connecting with the girls by telling your real story of the obstacles you faced and overcame to be the successful women you are today! You all have such diverse backgrounds and also such different types of careers and that made it so rich and interesting for the girls too.

It was really special. We are so fortunate to have you all in IGNITE!

I want to thank the great staff at Ballard High School who helped us in the recruitment efforts and supporting IGNITE. Thank you to Sue Higgins, Career Center Specialist, Craig Nelson, Project Lead the Way teacher( pre-engineering) Teacher, Susan Waterworth, Language Arts, Penny Arthur, Librarian and Penny, Mesa teacher. MESA enables educationally disadvantaged students to prepare for and graduate from a four-year college or university with a math-based degree in areas such as engineering, the sciences, computer science, and mathematics.

Thank you to Lilna Givan-Williams, Work Based learning Coordinator for all of your support at IGNITE events.

Here are the comments from the girls evaluation sheets.

• I comprehended EVERY thing that I could. It enlightened me on the leap to the top from high school to college and beyond. I will definitely take what I learned today and try some new things.
• I learned how people can find out what they want to be through a system of trial and error with fate added on.
• It was great and I wouldn't change anything. I want to go to as many IGNITE events as possible.
• I liked the presentations each person did because they talked about their journey from high school to now. I also liked the free gifts:)
• I look forward to the MIcrosoft field trip. I wanted more time to talk. I want to go on all of the spring ignite field trips.
• I learned so much information today about high tech careers and about Microsoft. I liked that they answered all of my questions.
• I like how the women got to see the games before anyone else. It was such a nice event, so enthusiastic and I also found it very informative.
• I liked to listen about the gaming and what I should go into to accomplish my goal.
• I liked hearing about the XBOX because I have one. I look forward to the Microsoft field trip.
• I want to visit Microsoft to see if this is something I really want to do. I want to learn how to create things. I want to do all ignite events.
• Learning about the different stories and how almost all of the women didn't think that they wanted a technology career.
• I really learned about different types of high tech jobs.
• I liked the fact that we got to actually meet and talk with females who have a career in technology. Also the fact that they want us to succeed too was just amazing.
• It was so interesting to learn that women are able to invent video games and get to test try them.
  I pretty much enjoyed how they put this together. I liked it the way it was.
• I loved everything! The stories were inspiring.
• I liked being able to talk and hear all the women in computer jobs etc. because it made their careers seem more realistic and a lot more reachable.
• I learned that the women did not all get 4.0's. I look forward to the field trips.
• I like how the women told us how they got to where they are now. AS well as the information we received about what is open to us today.
• I loved hearing the stories of the women. It was very good.
• Today was really great because we got to hear a lot about things that I never thought females can do. I learned that women can create video games. I loved everything.

Thank you all, after reading the comments we can be sure it was really important to the girls that we did our event.

Thank you for making this all possible.
Cathi