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Tag: STEM

Winning at the Starting Line

Countless articles and books have been written about the gender balance problems that continue to plague the tech industry. I’ve been passionate about outreach at the K-12 level for years, but what of those of us already in the workplace? A recent article that got me thinking about the topic once again in great detail was circulated a few weeks ago – Josh Bersin’s “The Important Topic of Women in Business: What Men Can Do”. But even this article focuses on mind shifts at home and in life, without a great deal of actionable advice. So you’re a leader in…

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Playing till the Ides of March

March is definitely coming in like a lion for me – many performances and appearances in the next 14 days, including several appearances at the Emerald City Comicon. Here’s where to find me: SATURDAY MARCH 2nd: “Where No Man Has Gone Before” Emerald City Comicon (#ECCC) 12PM – 1PM, Room 2AB Performing our fully improvised Star Trek parody Playing Star Trek Catan in character as Nurse Chapel (Spock, Bones and Kirk may also appear) Emerald City Comicon (#ECCC) 4PM – 5:30PM, Gaming Annex NERDprov Emerald City Comicon (#ECCC) 7PM – 8:30 PM, Hall B Performing family-friendly shortform geeky improvised comedy…

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Design for DigiGirlz

On Wednesday, I had the unique experience of teaching 110 high school girls an intro to interaction design workshop. Officially entitled “Making the World Easier With Interaction Design”, this was a course I built from scratch after offering to teach the subject at Microsoft’s annual Digigirlz Tech Camp. It’s a free weeklong program open to high school girls. They spend the week at Microsoft, hearing speakers, seeing demos, taking tours, and doing hands-on workshops like mine. Back when I debuted my Computer Engineer Barbie talk at Interaction ’11, I mentioned that my eventual goal was to craft a curriculum for…

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Take Your Kids to Work The Carnival Day

Last Friday was Take Your Kids to Work Day, formerly Take Your Daughters to Work Day. I participated as a mentor, talking to kids and answering questions about how to combine art and technology in jobs at places like Microsoft. Now, it’s no secret that I’m pretty passionate about this kind of work, seeing as I’ve spent multiple years on the Board of IGNITE (Inspiring Girls Now In Technology Evolution). It’s important to give kids enough information about what’s out there for them, in the hopes of empowering them to get passionate and make the right choices. But at the…

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A Few Steps towards a Brighter Future

The IGNITE Brighter Future Walk was a great success today – we raised nearly $5,000 (and will probably surpass that with matching corporate funds) and saw both familiar faces in addition to some new faces – like a large contingent of lovely ladies from GeekGirlCon, where coincidentally I’ll be speaking in October! (Date and time TBD.) We also presented one of the participating students with a $1500 scholarship courtesy of Microsoft! As for me, I walked three miles less than 2 weeks post-knee surgery, with a little jogging thrown in for good measure, and I’m holding up well! It was…

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