On February 15, 2017 the Tyee campus, home to Global Connections High School (Global) and the Academy of Citizenship and Empowerment (ACE), hosted our 2nd Annual Women in Technology Luncheon in partnership with IGNITE. A total of 27 students from both ACE and Global came to the event to hear from 6 speakers representing a wide range of companies and areas of technology. Companies represented included Amazon, Microsoft, Disney, and EagleView Technologies.
Throughout the panel the speakers emphasized the importance of working hard and advocating for yourself, especially as women. One speaker shared that her school’s career center had not allowed her to apply for a job in the tech field because she wasn’t qualified, but when she reached out directly to the company, she was encouraged to apply and received the job as a result. Speakers also made sure to share about the various pathways and roles within technology. To name a few, the girls were able to learn about project management, UX design, technology law, software engineering, and quality assurance.
In addition to the panel, a few speakers brought their own content to share. Marta, QA Manager at Amazon, brought her Amazon Echo for a demonstration that many of the girls enjoyed and Virgina, a former Disney employee, also shared slides and a video about the design process for one of Disney’s mobile apps. Overall, the event was a huge success for our students. 90% said this career experience helped them better understand their future interests and plans after high school and 100% said we should offer this event again in the future!
Student Takeaways:
- “I feel relieved knowing that there is more than one job in STEM fields” – Amina, 11th grade
- “How you can take many passions that you love and connect it to a career. And it relates to technology and STEM.” – Maria, 9th grade
- “Hearing about the successful people’s story and their inspirations to do our best at school drew me in and I was really interested to go to one of their field of study. Keep up the good work.” – Rahel, 10th grade
- “I enjoyed how they talked about their ups and downs, and their path to success” – Sunor, 9th grade
- “Highlight: the panelist talking about their journey of technology. They inspired me to go out there and seek for answers. They also inspired me to never give up.” – Angelika, 11th grade