Staff Celebrations
Non-traditional career counselor Cathi Rodgveller to be honored with Women in Technology award
A Seattle Public Schools career counselor who founded a program to introduce girls to technology is being honored this Thursday, Oct. 4 by a national organization for her work.
Cathi Rodgveller, an SPS career and technical education counselor, founded IGNITE (Inspiring Girls Now in Technology Evolution), a program aimed at introducing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields and role models into the lives of elementary- through high school-age girls in Seattle Public Schools.
Rodgveller will be recognized for her accomplishments and contributions to women in technology at the awards ceremony during the 12th Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) in Baltimore, Maryland.
She will receive the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology Social Impact Award, which honors an individual or team that has caused technology to have a positive impact on the lives of women and society or has caused women to have a significant impact on the design and use of technology.
IGNITE offers an affordable, community-based, multifaceted approach to STEM education and outreach by providing toolkits and curriculum that allow educators across the globe to replicate the Seattle Public Schools model.
The program has reached more than 18,000 girls, and the number of young women in technology courses in Seattle schools has more than doubled following the implementation of the IGNITE program in high schools. IGNITE is also working directly with educators in Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, Libya, England and Egypt.