On October 25, 2018, we hosted an Ignite event at Washington High School in San Francisco. The event was a huge success as we were able to attract girls that have not had the chance to try coding before. Thank you to Jessica Allen with Bioengineering at UCSF who facilitated a robotics workshop for the students. Students were able to interact with the robot and learn about how scientists use robots to study cells. Thank you to Acelia Castaneda, who facilitated an engaging coding workshop to create a colorful animation.
Thank you to Faith Chikwekwe and Stephanie Cherubin, Software Engineering students at Make School (www.makeschool.com), Nicole Vadival, Senior Research Engineer at Tesla, and Craig Smith, Software Engineer at Atlassian, for providing one-on-one tutoring during these workshops. Thank you to Acelia, Faith, Stephanie, Jessica, and Nicole for being open and vulnerable with the students and telling their story on a panel, answering student questions, and staying after the event to network further with the students. At the end, the girls had a great time and developed some real interest in pursuing computer science in the future.
-John Hajel, IGNITE Advisor, George Washington High School and Amber Zertuche, IGNITE Regional Director
After this event:
Comments from the Girls:
"I enjoyed seeing the differences each function makes and it inspired me because I want to code more and it's very interesting to me. Plus I wanted to code but I've never tried it so this event was great."
"This event inspired me, like even if it's difficult to do something or it just doesn't work out, to keep trying. I was struggling earlier but I wanna do more."
"I liked playing with the small robots that were attracted to light. This event inspired me to learn more about coding."
"I enjoyed hearing about the different stories. I learned that there comes difficulties but we have to learn from them."
"I enjoyed listening to their stories/journeys."
"The highlights were when they started talking about their challenges and how that didn't affect them but instead inspired them to continue."
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS
