Hi All,

We had a wonderful field trip to Microsoft. The young women toured the Microsoft Home of the Future and the Datacenter. We also had a great discussion lunch with a fantastic group of women. Thank you all for making this day such a success.

I want to thank our host and special IGNITE partner, Janice Hunter, who makes sure our visit is number 1. Everything is so smooth and welcoming. Thank you to Mylene Padolina who makes this event possible for us.

Thank you to the staff at the Home of the Future, Leah Devine, Julie Brown, and our always great tour leader Flora Goldthwaite. You make this experience so much fun and exciting.

Thank you to the Datacenter staff and Billi Lynn Happ for making this tour so wonderful. Billi has done such an outstanding job in connecting with students to help them understand the complex operations that take place in the Networking world. Thank you !!

Thank you to our wonderful lunch presenters: Vicki E. Cahill-Myers, Fredia Brooks, Melanie A. Caoile, Betsy Norton-Middaugh, Louisa B Steele, and Julie M. Turner. You were all great in your work to connect with the girls and make it interesting and fun. Your stories are always great!!

I want to thank the wonderful school staff for your continued support in working with the IGNITE program. Thank you to Peggy Soong-Yaplee, Deborah Gallaher, Doug Gouganour, and Estela Mendoza. The turnout for these events is always wonderful due to your dedicaton. Thank you !!

Here are the comments from the girls evaluation forms.

• I liked the event because I learned a lot.
• I found out that people have lots of different kinds of degrees and still work at Microsoft.
• I liked it all.
• Talking to the women workers about what they do and how they got there, was the best part. I learned that people who work at Microsoft have all kinds of degrees.
• I liked visiting the "Smart House" I wish we had more time there to see more things. People have lots of different degrees, not only technical.
• I liked the Microsoft House. The only thing to make it better is to spend more time here. Everything I heard about the house was interesting to me.
• I liked the speakers. I learned about their past experiences. I thought the day was perfect. More women worked here than I thought.
• I loved seeing the Microsoft house. I liked how the house talks to you.
• I liked the group's questions and the discussion.
• I liked the guest speakers and all the different things they said. I liked the discussion about how all the different servers connect. I want to learn more about XBOX.
• I liked the lady who told us about France. That lady who had a great laugh.
• I liked the one on one conversation with the women. The most interesting things I heard was how the women got there.
• I liked all of the information that was given out.
• I liked the guests talking about how they got into a tech career. I want to go to Digigirlz.
• I liked hearing how the ladies got into the business.
• You guys did a good job. I liked how we took a tour of the Future House.
• I learned how technology needs more women of color. I liked the House of the Future.
• I liked it cause I like computers.
• I want to go to Digigirlz camp. I loved seeing the House of the Future. I would have liked to stay longer.
• I liked to hear about people's backgrounds and info. I liked learning about sales and video game design.
• It was fun learning about where and what countries that Microsoft had networks in. I want to learn more about IP address and game design.
• I loved seeing the House of the Future.
• It was interesting hearing people's stories about how they got into technology and to Microsoft.
• I liked the African American woman that spoke to us today. You can major in different things in college and still work at Microsoft.
• It was interesting how a lot of people who work here did not plan on a future in technology.
• I loved the question and answer session. I want to learn more about game design.
• I liked how they designed the future house, it was very creative. I want to learn more about how they upgrade the future house.
• I learned that there are a lot of departments at Microsoft. The people seemed interesting.
• The food was good and the people gave us lots of advice. I would've liked to meet Bill, what's his name.
• I liked how friendly everyone was. Marketing was interesting to me.

It was a great day and the girls always say it best.

Thank you all for such a great experience.
Cathi
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