Frequently Asked Questions - Student Member FAQ

Of course! Graduates of the IGNITE student program make up a very important part of IGNITE.

As an IGNITE graduate, you can still access the many resources for students, such as job and internship opportunities, that will continue to help you along in your chosen career path. You are still eligible to do Job Shadows and connect with Professional Members who will continue to mentor you as your future unfolds.

Additionally, once you graduate from the IGNITE program, you have the opportunity to begin mentoring other IGNITE students. By sharing your unique skills and experiences, you can have a huge impact on younger students and help them along as IGNITE has helped you. In fact, many of the IGNITE Professional Members who speak at presentations and conferences are also graduates of the IGNITE program!

First of all, welcome to IGNITE-us.org! Let us help you get started.

1. Register

You can create an account by going to http://www.ignite-us.org and clicking on "create new account" on the left side of the page (below the login box).

Or you can click on the direct link here.

Fill in the requested information, including your school name and that you are a student. When you're done, click the Create New Account button at the bottom of the page.
The next page will ask you to Choose Your Role. Click on "Student."
The next page will prompt you to...

2. Connect with your Member School discussion group

Every IGNITE Member School has its own discussion group where IGNITE events and messages from the Chapter Administrator are posted. Joining up with your Member School discussion group and checking often for new posts is a great way to be the first to know about special field trips and job shadows in your area.
When you've finished creating your account by following the directions above, you'll be prompted to choose your school's discussion group. Find your school in the list and click on the Join link to the right of your school name.

3. Start signing up!

Congratulations! You're well on your way to participating in all of the programs IGNITE has to offer. You may be interested in signing up for a job shadow, or attending an IGNITE field trip with your school. You can do all of these things through the website.
You can find a complete listing of events on the IGNITE Calendar (click on "Events" at the top of any page on the website to bring up the calendar). You can also find events specifically for your school posted to your Member School discussion group (click on "Member Schools" on the left sidebar, and then click on your school to see all events for that school).

Once you've found an event you'd like to sign up for, click on the title of the event to bring up the signup page. Click on the "Sign up" link and enter in the requested information to sign up.

Job Shadows work a little bit differently. To sign up for a Job Shadow, you will need to fill out a Job Shadow Request form on the site. They are located here . Please answer the questions in the form so IGNITE can match you up with a professional in your area who shares your interests. Once you submit the Job Shadow Request form, an IGNITE administrator will be in contact with you to work out the details about the date, time, and location of the job shadow.

4. Get Help

We want to help you in any way we can. If you have any questions about the instructions above, or how to use the website, or something just doesn't make sense to you, we have resources that can help you out. There is an online FAQ here, which is updated periodically as new questions are answered. You can also ask the IGNITE administrators a question by filling out our contact form, located here.

You must be signed in as a Student Member with your unique username and password in order to view the protected, members-only pages on this website.

Once you are a Student Member, you will have the opportunity to upload an image of yourself, keep track of the events you attend, your graduation dates and update your private profile and achievements as your education progresses.

This Student Member information is gathered by IGNITE to help you find Job Shadow opportunities, Internships and Mentoring partnerships. This also helps us produce the interesting events that we attend! It also helps IGNITE keep statistics on the success of our IGNITE Program across the world.

This information is not viewable by the public.

Create Your Student Member Profile

Your email address is on our database for email announcement distribution after you fill out your Student Member form.

IGNITE Chapters are listed on this website by State, City, School District and Member School.

The Chapter Administrators have their profiles (link to the page here) listed with contact information and links to the Event Calendar.

You can look for a Chapter in your area by using the interactive map, by using the Chapters navigation button at the top of this page, or by entering a keyword into the text field of the search feature at the top right hand side of each web page.

You may also contact IGNITE Staff by using the Contact button on the top of the web page and filling out the Contact form. Someone will get back to you as soon as possible.

IGNITE Chapters are listed on this website by State, City, School District and Member School.

You can look for a Chapter in your area by using the interactive map, by using the Chapters navigation button at the top of this page or by entering a keyword into the text field of the search feature at the top right hand side of each web page.

After you fill out your Student Member form, the Chapter Administrator in your area will be contacting you soon by email. If there isn't a Chapter in your School district, maybe you can be the person who brings the IGNITE Program to your school!

For any in-person IGNITE Chapter Events, your school would have to have its own IGNITE Chapter or be a Member School.

You can find a career listed by location, or job title, or you can just read through the Professional Member Profiles until you find someone with a career you want to learn more about. The women who are on the Professional Member list are here to help you. They want to answer your questions, be a mentor, and help you navigate your career path. All you have to do is engage them by writing to them. How to proceed? Here are some suggestions:

Who are you? Tell someone on the Professional Member list a bit about you, your name, school and grade to begin. Then elaborate by telling the Professional Member a bit about what brought you to IGNITE, and why you are interested in learning more about technology and engineering careers. That should get you both started off on a conversation. After you get to know someone a bit, then you might want to ask her for a Job Shadow day.

We can schedule a Job Shadow on your day off; a school holiday can be spent learning about a new career opportunity by doing a Job Shadow with a Professional Member.

Ask your questions and be mentored online by women who want to help you understand what they do. Give it a try! You might discover a new career interest, or learn about a career you never knew existed. Have fun!

Professional members are women in technology, science and engineering careers who want to answer your questions, mentor you, or even provide you the opportunity to do a Job Shadow! During a Job Shadow, you spend the day with a Professional Member at their place of employment for a real world experience on the job!

To sign up for a Job Shadow, you can fill out this form.

You must be signed in with your unique username and password in order to view the Professional Member profiles.

IGNITE Presentation Events

These presentation events are the heart of what IGNITE is all about.

Professional women come to your school and tell their personal story about the fun, interesting jobs they do every day and share how they got there. Beginning from what they were like in high school to what they did from there. They share the obstacles that they faced and how they overcame them to create the success they have acquired. Most importantly, they give you some advice on how you can proceed to be the greatest success that you can be.

You can also ask them questions and create an on-going mentoring relationship.

IGNITE Field Trips

We travel to many sites. In Seattle, we visit Microsoft, Adobe, Attachmate, Real Networks, Seattle Central Community College, Cisco Systems; the list is actually very long.

At an industry site, we will do a tour and then have lunch with women who work at the company. They will do an IGNITE Presentation and share their story with you. It's a fantastic day meeting women where they work.

On IGNITE field trips, we visit colleges and focus on meeting young women who are in technology and engineering programs. Meeting with these professional women and visiting these places will help you know what you can expect. Also you will get to ask questions that will help you make good choices.

IGNITE Conferences

We have had conferences at local high tech and engineering companies and at college campuses. Conferences focus on providing workshops, real life experience and choices on what you would like to learn more about.

IGNITE Job Shadows

We create Job Shadow days so you can go with a group of girls from yourschool and get matched up with a woman in an industry you have interest in learning about. You can also do a Job Shadow on your own, by using our Professional Member Profiles.

IGNITE Student Internships, Scholarships and Grants

IGNITE helps you find internships, scholarships and many other opportunities in your area. We keep our website updated so that you can get the current information on what is available to you in your area.

All you have to do to be in IGNITE is show up. Get signed up online with your own account. Participate in the forum or just come to an event and have fun! Welcome!

Below we have outlined several different ways to be involved in IGNITE:

Local Chapter IGNITE Events

If we have IGNITE events at your school, you can contact the Chapter Administrator listed under your school on the IGNITE Chapter interactive map.
Hint: IGNITE Chapters are listed by State, City and School District.

Also, if there is no IGNITE Chapter at your school, please send Cathi an email and she can help you get one started.

The Chapter Administrator will notify you about any and all IGNITE events happening in your local School District or Member School at the email address you provided in your Student Member Profile.

IGNITE Online

You can set up a Student Member Profile by filling out the Student Member sign up form. Once you have a unique username and password, log on and you will have access our Professional Members to ask questions about your future career options and even search for a Job Shadow and Mentoring opportunity.

We have lots of great resources on our website. Please use them to let us help you discover new career options.

Our goal of course, is to get an IGNITE Chapter at your school if there isn't one. We want to get your school into the IGNITE Program and provide all the opportunities that it offers.

Yes, most definitely. Many Students who started with IGNITE in high school have since graduated from college and gone on to careers in engineering and technology. Throughout their journey, they have continued their involvement with IGNITE and helped the next generation of students.