I would like to thank everyone who helped and took time out of their busy days to attend one of the IGNITE –Eastside activities this week; IGNITE presentation at Skyline and Microsoft field trip for girls attending Eastside schools. Without your support and participation, these activities that encourage girls to consider high tech as a career choice would not be possible. You have shown the girls the career possibilities and encouraged the girls to follow their passion by sharing your stories and advice.

THANK YOU all for making a difference!!

THANK YOU to IGNITE supporters who went to Skyline High School Tuesday to share their stories and advice with the girls;

• Gabby Corchado – Verizon
• Kathie Flood – Microsoft
• Nora Duffy – Avanade Inc
• Nancy Acree - Boeing
• Judy Churchill – Boeing
• Jennifer Blue - Freelance
• Susan Gellatly – Boeing
• Karen Djoury - Microsoft
• Sharla Marcum - Boeing

Highlights for the girls who attended the presentations (1st and 2nd sessions);

• Personal stories from the women
• I enjoyed hearing about how families fit into careers
• That you can come from nowhere or low status and get a degree
• Hearing of all the different majors and classes that they took
• Hearing about their diverse paths to how they got to where they now
• Hearing the experience of other women
• Learning about the opportunities
• Hearing how each of them changed through their career path
• It was very interesting and insightful; I now see the difference fields of technology
• Learning more about technology and business
• Great presentation
• Finding out that I have already taken the classes that they suggested
• I learned of other jobs I could go into along with how some jobs are connected to technology

A BIG THANK YOU to all IGNITE supporters from Microsoft who participated in the Microsoft field trip Thursday.

Thank you:

• Mylene Padolina of Microsoft for coordinating and sponsoring the lunch for the field trip.
• Raelene Sanders
• Karen Miller
• Julie Brown
• Janice Hunter
• Lindi Chatterton
• Sharon B. Cohen
• Israelh Hillerio
• Daphne Elliott
• Elizabeth A Norton-Middaugh
• Amy Adams Plackiewicz
• Cecilia R Strom
• Robin E Wakefield
• Jennie Moore from The Gender Chip Project (www.genderchip.org) who brought the video to share

Thank you also to Marcia Johnson and Donna Hadlock from the Lake Washington Branch of the American Association of University Women for attended the field trip. AAUW has made these activities possible by providing IGNITE – Eastside with a wonderful grant to provide girls on the Eastside with extra-curricular activities that encourage girls to pursuit careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). THANK YOU!

Highlights for the girls who attended the field trip;

• Hearing about what employees do in different fields and how they came about their job positions
• This program showed me personally that there are so many more career choices available. It also showed the variety of education that contributes to all different kinds of careers
• Seeing all of the different women in the film experiencing college in majors that interest me
• Hearing employees’ personal experiences from before Microsoft Corporation and after they started working here This activity has given me more confidence
• This sparks my interest. I would never had thought about a career in technology until this trip. I hope you have this every year!
• I understood how we need more women, I liked the food and I also liked looking at the computer workers and how they had so much to deal with
• Know that many interests are looked at in the technology opportunities. There are many career choices with a career in technology
• Relating to the girls and the discussion
• Being able to discuss some of the fields with employees. Also, get a sense of some educational paths to take in college
• I enjoyed seeing the inspired, determined and accomplished women and their ideas and experiences
• I liked the friendliness of the speakers and the way that they talked to us as though we were their peers
• I enjoyed hearing the stories and personal experiences of the women employees and the young women in the film we watched. They had interesting things to say about technology careers for women
• I liked the tour. The discussion showed me and gave me some more views on STEM and the many opportunities available
• The experiences and backgrounds spoken of by the Microsoft employees were very motivational
• I got to learn what employees do at Microsoft Corporation and how there are so many fields

Thank you everyone!!

Carola F.S. Dopps
IGNITE – Eastside Coordinator
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