Hi All

We had a fabulous event at Marshall Alternative HS!! The group of young women were such a great group of girls. We had 4 teens moms and one more on the way!! We also had 7 additional girls totaling 12 all together. They were so engaged and thrilled to have the IGNITE program at their school.

I want to thank the very special women who presented to them at this event. Thank you to Rebecca Grant, Engineer, Boeing and Kendra Powers, Engineer, Boeing. You did such a great job connecting with the girls, being parents yourselves made it really special too. The discussion was lively and the girls so engaged, and its because you were so open and willing to share your story and your obstacles with them and they were so receptive. It was a very nice event for everyone. Since it was a small group, about 12 girls, we were able to go around and really find out more about each young woman and what she was interested in. That made it very special for all of us, to get to know the girls better.

I want to thank the great staff at Marshall who worked so hard to get all the girls excited and interested in being at this event. Thank you to Peggy Gallup, Career Center Specialist, for doing such a great job and really connecting with IGNITE, and Doris Brevort, Intervention Specialist, for taking care of one of the toddlers, so that mom could be a part of this experience! And thank you to all the staff who pulled together at Marshall to make us feel so welcome.

Thank you to Lilna Given-Williams for being there to support the girls.

Here's the comment from the girls:

• I loved everything!
• I liked how they said that whatever you like Microsoft or Boeing had a place for you.
• It was great to learn about how much money they make.
• It was all great.
• It was so wonderful to listen to the women from Boeing and know how its changed their lives.
• I liked that the women talked about how we can do it, choose our careers and we could pick any career.
• It was a perfect event.
• I loved the way the speakers were open with us and made us feel very comfortable.
• It was interesting to me to hear the speakers had kids and that they were still going strong.
• Hearing that not a lot of math is required for these jobs. I'm horrible at math. It was a really good event.
• I liked everything.
• What I liked about this event is that I learned a lot of things. Also that we will be able to go to Microsoft on a field trip.
• I learned that they need more girls in the Microsoft company and in this field.
• I loved everything that had been said today! I like the way they really were open, and gave lots of information about high tech careers. I loved it all.
• Listening to the women talk and getting to know about technology careers was the best part.
• The woman had trouble reading and writing and she made it.

WE look forward to taking these girls to Microsoft next week for their field trip. They are so excited about that trip!

Thank you all.
Cathi