Hi All

We had a wonderful event at Hale HS. Great turnout and wonderful discussion. This is the third meeting with the girls at Hale, and we are really getting to know them and the kinds of things they want to learn about. It is great! Next meeting we are working on Microsoft Internship applications. If someone from Microsoft is interested in joining us!! write me This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Thank you to our great and special presenters, Marta Smith, Program Manager and Software Tester, Microsoft, and Justine Vick, Network Architecture, Microsoft. Marta has been so amazing with IGNITE, she is coming to almost each and every event and the girls love her! You obviously have such commitment and dedication to educating the girls and we are so fortunate to have you. Thank you Marta for doing such a great job. Justine Vick is one of our original founders and we missed her. Now she is back and in the classroom again! We are so thrilled to have her back with the girls and that is so exciting!! Justine is the women who brought IGNITE to Microsoft all those years ago, its about 8 years now. She has been such a heroine for IGNITE. Its such a thrill to have her back!!!!!!!!!

I want to thank Cathy Hagood, Career Center Specialist, for doing such a great job and working so hard for IGNITE. I want to thank Chris Syrjala for participating again with IGNITE. Summit high school which is a small school and right across the street from Hale is now joining IGNITE activities and Chris did bring a wonderful group of girls yesterday, Welcome back Chris!!

Here are the comments from the girls!!

• The best part of this event was learning about the daily lives of the women. I loved hearing about what encouraged them to explore a career in technology. I want to meet more women who work at Microsoft.
• The two women who talked were great. I liked learning about the flexible hours they have in high tech. I would love to do a job shadow.
• The best part was the women who shared their stories, I came in late and still was able to catch what was going on. Thank you for making that possible. Cool program, its so cool the way it is.
• The women from Microsoft were so cool,. It was so interesting to hear that even though she didn't like computers, she ended up getting a career in computers! I look forward to more!
• Seeing people that worked at Microsoft was good. It made it seem possible to go to work there and that you can travel too. It was so interesting to learn about the everyday lifestyle of someone who works at a software company. I look forward to seeing Microsoft and to visit the UW.
• It was really interesting to hear from the 2 Microsoft women and why they chose technology. It was interesting that both women used to hate technology and now they love it More time!! I look forward to field trips.!
• I liked listening to the speakers and hearing about what they do at Microsoft. It all seemed really interesting., thank you for the pizza and pop. The most interesting thing would be that the people who work at Microsoft. I want more.
• I liked hearing about how they pulled from a low career to a good career. How they got involved with technology. I did learn a lot and it was really interesting too.
• I liked learning about the women's lives and experiences in technology. Women have to work pretty hard.
• The best part was getting to hear the women from Microsoft speak. I really liked learning what kinds of jobs they do. It was perfect.
• I liked hearing about how this thing works and how supportive everyone is in getting women into technology and engineering. It was interesting to learn what the percentage of women working in these career fields.
• Learning about the Microsoft ladies and how they got to this job and how you don't think you want to do any tech stuff and then you learn about it and then you start to like it. It was interesting how these ladies didn't think they could be a tech person but became one.
• I liked how the presenters gave us a look at their lives and how it led to their new careers. I learned that this industry is hiring. longer sessions.
• I like the women sharing their life stories. I liked how none of them know what they wanted to do when they were younger. That Microsoft wants diversity. Everything was great.
• It was great to learn that Microsoft wants more women to work there. That no matter what you study or who you are you can work there .
• That the women hwo spoke didn't start out knowing exactly what they wanted to do after high school. It took them a while to get into companies and technology. High tech can have flexible hours. I want to learn more.
• What I liked about today's event is that everybody had a very inspiring story. That you can travel around the globe.
• Hearing real life stories from the two women was great. The lady chats with her friends for her job.
• I liked meeting women who have these types of jobs because I want to know about all different types of jobs. It was so cool to hear about the daily lives of women who work at MIcrosoft.

Thank you all for making this possible.
Cathi