In Seattle, IGNITE sparks girls interests in technology

The IGNITE (Inspiring Girls Now in Technology Evolution) program sparks girls’ interest in technology and exposes them to a wide range of job options by bringing in women with successful careers.

When the program started in 1999, the typical information technology class only had one or two girls, said Cathi Rodg­veller, IGNITE’s founder and coordinator and a nontraditional careers specialist with Seattle Public Schools. “Now girls fill an average of 30 to 50 percent of the seats in these classes.”

IGNITE has arranged for some 350 female volunteers who work at such companies as Microsoft, Cisco, T-Mobile, and Amazon -- along with some who are self-employed -- to serve as role models and mentors.

They share their own personal stories, encourage girls to attend college, guide their choices of high school and college programs, lead field trips to businesses and college campuses, and offer hands-on job shadowing and internships.

“These women have been so supportive,” said Rodgveller. They have talked about how they’ve overcome obstacles, such as dyslexia and family troubles. “It’s the realness of these struggles that draws girls in, creates the magic, and makes the program different and successful.”

The district needed to dispel the “geeky guy image” of technology courses and girls’ perception that these classes did not promote collaboration, Rodgveller said.

“What’s so exciting is how the IGNITE program has grown so quickly,” said Seattle school board President Cheryl Crow. “A lot has to do with the energy and excitement of the staff and the volunteers and with what’s happening in the Northwest.”

Noting that Washington’s governor and both U.S. senators are women, Crow said, “these very visible, female officials are allowing our girls to see that anything is possible.”

Evidence of IGNITE’s success can be seen at Seattle’s Ingraham High School, where by 2003 girls were outnumbering boys in two-thirds of the technology classes.

In 2004, 66 percent of high school internships at Microsoft were filled by girls who participated in IGNITE.

“It’s not just an issue of gender equity,” Rodg­veller explains. “Women generally have different strengths than men and, given the changing direction of information technology in the near future, the gender imbalance will put these departments in a really weak position.”

“IGNITE allowed me to become more qualified than the men I had to compete with,” said Axum Aragawi, a student at Seattle University and president of the National Society of Black Engineers. “It also made me realize my first passion, which is to serve others and give back to the world.”

Unlike many other clubs or programs, IGNITE operates within the school curriculum and works directly with technology teachers who recruit girls to participate.

Long-term involvement is customary. Both the corporate volunteers and the girls tend to stay active in IGNITE for several years.

Rodgveller’s mission now is to encourage other schools across the nation -- and even worldwide -- to adopt IGNITE chapters. [For more information, visit www.ignite-us.org.]

So far, IGNITE has spread to 14 high schools in Seattle and 50 schools in Idaho. Eight school districts in Virginia plan to pilot the program in the 2007-08 school year.

Rodgveller has written The IGNITE Toolkit, a 260-page handbook that explains the evolution of the IGNITE philosophy and methodology and offers step-by-step instructions for starting and managing a chapter.

To create an IGNITE chapter, a school must purchase a $450 start-up kit and pay a yearly membership fee of $500. Both are eligible expenses under the federal Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act.

Recently, IGNITE received the national Programs and Practices that Work: Preparing Students for Nontraditional Careers award for 2007.The award is sponsored by the Association of Career and Technical Education, National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity, National Women’s Law Center, and the National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education Consortium.