Hi All

We had a fabulous day at the Engineering Open House at the University of Washington. We had at least 50 young women. The teachers from the Project Lead the Way classes invited the girls to this field trip. Project Lead the Way is a Pre-Engineering Curriculum at Franklin, Roosevelt, West Seattle and Ballard HS. Here is the website if you want more information www.PLTW.org

I want to thank so many wonderful people who made this day possible and of course show you the evaluation forms filled out by the girls. I want to thank the wonderful staff at the University of Washington who made this day so special for us. Thank you to Megan Reardon, Undergraduate Advisor, Computer Science and Engineering , and Crystal Eney, Lead Academic Counselor Computer Science and Engineering Careers. These great women helped us plan and coordinate an extraordinary day. I look forward to working with you both more and more to do events! A bit about our day..... First we had chaperones who brought our groups around to all the exhibits that the girls picked out to see. We spent about 2 hours seeing all the amazing exhibits, and we could have spend many days trying to see all that was available to see. Then we had a spectacular lunch that the women ordered for us; box lunches from Gretchens, which everyone knows is a great lunch, and we want to thank you for that!! At the lunch we had 7 women University students who spoke eloquently to the girls about their journeys to Computer Science and Engineering Majors and what that is like. The young women were all seniors or graduate students and they had such important information to share. And then the girls got to ask questions, and they had such articulate and thoughtful questions, which really opened their eyes to the careers this field of study leads to. It was such a wonderful experience for the young women and I hope to do this every year.

I want to thank another great woman, who helped us providing chaperones who are Engineering students . And thank you for all the bus info and help along the way! A big thank you to Kristina Michaels,Engineering Co-op Program, Engineering Advising and Diversity Center.

A big thank you to all the young women who are students at the University. They wanted to share and support the high school girls with their stories and experiences. Thank you to Candy Chiang, an IGNITE alum and Senior in Computer Engineering; Annie, Senior in Computer Engineering; Elisabeth Olson, Computer Science and Chemistry Senior; Kelsey Hutchins, Computer Science and Linguistics, Senior; Helen Ursachii, Computer Science Senior. You all did such a great job and I thank you so much for being there. Your stories and advice was so important for the high school girls. I want to thank our Chaperones and Lunch time leaders as well, Amy Dashiell, Graduate Student in Engineering and Colleen Mori. Undergraduate student, Engineering. You both did such a great job and stayed with us the whole day, first Chaperoning and then joining us for the lunch discussion. You were all such a great inspiration, thank you so much for your time and caring.

Thank you for your dedication and welcome to all of the UW students to IGNITE, I know all of you offered to do more volunteering in IGNITE! The day was so special because of all of you!!

I want to thank the wonderful PlTW teachers, last but not least. They really put their heart and soul into recruiting the girls and show us all that they are leaders in our country by doing out reach to girls regarding Engineering. So an extra special thank you to Karl Ruff, Roosevelt, Craig Nielsen, Ballard, Sam Anderson West Seattle and Peter Bawden, Franklin. You are all outstanding teachers and nationwide leaders in the mission to out reach to girls about Engineering education,. Thank you !!

A special thank you to Bob Austin who is the Technology Specialist in the Seattle School District. Bob supports the Project Lead the Way teachers and program among so many other classes. He took the time to come and help out, and he did a great job. I want him to know how much I appreciate his help and support, Thank you Bob!

As you can all see it was quite a bit collaboration to make this day special, Each and every person an important link in the march to create representation of women in Engineering. You are all inspiring!!

Here are the comments from the girls.

• Great information about how it is to be an Engineer, and I heard about how to get a job.
• I liked the different projects that were shown and the way they were spread out. I want to learn more about Engineering at school.
• I liked the interactive exhibits. I heard that the University students did not know what they wanted to study and found out about that in college. More field trips like this.
• I liked the discussion and questions. The exhibits and lectures were interesting. This experience gave me a new interest in Engineering. I want to learn more about Engineering now.
• I enjoyed the different activities/projects that were shown today. I wish there was less little kids though. Now I want to visit an Engineering company.
• I really liked being able to talk to someone who is in the major that I want to be in, that was great. I really learned about getting into the University. More of these kinds of things.
• This experience helped me figure out what classes I should take to prepare myself for an Engineering career. I also learned about the scholarships for young girls that I can apply for in Engineering. I learned a lot.
• The best part was learning about the scholarship process.
• I liked the way people explained the way things worked in college. I understand better now .
• We met a lot of interesting people.
• I liked the activities I got to participate in.
• I liked the activities a lot, and I loved hearing the college students speak.
• I liked designing the egg drop. The lunch discussion was great and I learned a lot!!!
• I learned that the Engineering students thought it was intimidating too, to become an Engineer.
• I really enjoyed the onsite discussions. I thought they were really informative. I was intrigued by how quickly a job can be apprehended.
• I liked the information about how women can make a difference and how they were unrepresented in the fields. I liked that we heard that we can make a difference in Engineering.
• I liked the information on Engineering. I learned a lot!! Yea!!
• I loved listening to people who were so close to my age. It helped me see how I can do things to prepare. Next time use Microphones because it was hard to hear. The most interesting thing was that the college people get hired before they graduate!!
• I liked all the demonstrations and how nice everyone is. I think all the little kids should go on a certain day then the high schoolers.
• I liked hearing all the positive things about Computer Engineering.
• It was a little annoying with all the little kids. WE weren't able to do the activities. But otherwise it was a great trip. I learned about Computer Engineering which I didn't know much about.
• The things I liked best about the event is the first hand experiences provided to make this event great. The most interesting thing today was that I learned that studying this field leads to getting a job fast.
• The women who are engineers really know what their doing. Maybe I should follow their steps. I really thought it was the best thing to learn about the options for women
• I like how engineering can be interesting in many ways, like airplanes and chemicals. Everything was great!
• I loved learning about women and engineering. And women designing things.
• I loved hearing the students speak, I wouldn't change a thing.,
• The lectures with professors was the best part of the experience, along with touring the classrooms. The Bio-engineering building ultra light presentation was excellent.
• My favorite was sketch wizard and recording body movement.
• It was very interesting. How much science there was to it.
• I think today's event is great. I learned a lot about engineering and opportunities available for women. I would have loved more time to discuss. The most interesting thing today was how in Computer Engineering how fast you can get a job.
• I liked the egg drop, ice cream and silly putty.
• I liked all the exhibits. All kinds of engineering and that engineering can help a lot of people. More field trips like this one.
• I really liked going around to all the different things and seeing all the things you can do with engineering. I wish I had more time. The college girls were great!!

Well, as you can see the girls really say it best. It was an amazing experience and one that we can do every year. We can bring more and more girls!!

Thank you to all that made this day possible and so special!
Cathi