CACTC and CHSW students represent at first-ever DigiGirlzRI

By Jen Cowart
Posted 3/22/17

By JEN COWART New England Institute of Technology (NEIT) was the host for this year's first-ever DigiGirlzRI event. Designed to expose girls to the world of careers in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM), the free event

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CACTC and CHSW students represent at first-ever DigiGirlzRI

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New England Institute of Technology (NEIT) was the host for this year's first-ever DigiGirlzRI event. Designed to expose girls to the world of careers in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM), the free event has not been held in Rhode Island before, according to Lorilyn Hall, one of the event coordinators from Microsoft, Boston.

Last year a group of students from several of the Cranston Area Career and Technical Center (CACTC) programs (IDM, CISCO and CAD) and from Cranston High School West (CHSW), traveled to the Boston DigiGirlz event, but it has been a long-time goal of Hall, a Cranston resident and mother of two girls, to have a Rhode Island event, and she noted that the 150 student slots filled immediately, with a waiting list. This year, students from the The students who attended this year's event were: Sofie Andrews, Emely Dilone, Kassidy Garcia, Lyndsey Gibb, Angelina Gudoshnik, Mykenzie Hiscox, Tatyana Kisilywicz, Angela Petrarca, Julianna Silva, Caroline Cowart, Samantha Evans, Madison Lemire, Allison Marchetti and Alana Plociak.

This year's keynote speaker was also a big supporter of girls in STEAM careers, Rhode Island's first female governor, and the 75th governor of the state, Gina Raimondo.

Dispelling myths

On the morning of the event, students checked in and received a packet, which contained their schedule for the day. Throughout the day-long event, students would rotate through sessions and hear from NEIT staff and students working and learning in the areas of Digital Media, Mechanical Engineering, Adobe Photoshop, Unity Program and Multimedia Web Design, Microsoft employees, and women in STEAM careers such as Lauren Metter and Sarah Ribeiro from Metter Media, a social media management company and in the area of Cybersecurity. They would also have the opportunity to participate in a hands-on workshop led by Microsoft employees, using the newest version of the Microsoft Paint 3D app to build a 3D robot.

Welcome remarks were delivered by Microsoft's Director of Citizenship, Donna Woodall, whose job it is to bring programs such as DigiGirlz to local communities. She encouraged the students to use the day's events to learn something new, to have fun, feel inspired, ask questions, and to collaborate with the other students and guests at the event. She emphasized to the students in the audience that there are many career paths which require technical knowledge that one might not think of when considering STEAM careers, including being a dancer, an attorney, a or a doctor.

"We need to dispel some of the myths that are out there," she said. "Girls can be smart, beautiful, and talented, and bring new ideas to this field. We need to make sure that we dispel some of those myths, to be able to see ourselves in those roles, and to seriously consider careers in STEM."

As Woodall concluded her welcome address, the groups split up by color and began to follow the day's rotating schedule.

Meghan Martinez, LTC Alyce Pagliarini and Julie Rinehart were the presenters for the Cybersecurity session. In addition to hosting a hands-on workshop, the goal of the women was to share information about their job responsibilities in Cybersecurity and not only how they utilize the STEAM skills in their jobs, but also how they each came to their current careers, by way of their own non-traditional paths that may not have necessarily included a strong focus on science, technology, engineering, or math.

Martinez, from the RI State Police Computer Crimes unit spoke of her original career path as a marriage and family therapist, and of the fact that she did not have special training in the cybersecurity field. "I really enjoyed the humanities and I stuck to what I enjoyed doing," Martinez said. "You don't have to just be good at math and science. If you know now that you're into it, that's great, but if you're not, by no means are you excluded. My interests were always in peoples' behavior and how that impacted the digital world. I always liked computers and always had the newest technology. Privacy and information were concerning to me as a person and as a job. I also worked in victims' services and in traumatic events, on child porn and molestation cases." LTC Pagliarini was in the Air National Guard, utilizing the opportunities to save money for college, and making good on her dreams of flying.

"I went to Rhode Island College for Computer Information Systems and was selected for Officer school and went to flight school. I fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I had no idea what I wanted to do for several years, but a commander was setting up an information security department about ten years ago and it was a new skill set for me. I did cyber assessments all over the US for different military installations. I assessed what it takes to protect global information. About six years ago, I got a job with CVS Health, managing three teams there."

Rinehart spoke to the group about her career working for CVS in the cybersecurity group.

"We are training people how not to become a news line item. We are all vulnerable for a cyber attack," she said. "My have a Business background. I loved marketing and advertising and everything outside of this field until I got involved in it." The three women walked the group through the steps hackers take to gather information on an individual in order to perform cyber crimes, noting that social media profiles are not as private as individuals might think, and that by preying on various human emotions, and looking for key information, cyber attackers can find out all they need to know.

Limitless possibilities

The students were then asked to pair up and use the given laptops and Surface computers to look at various examples of social media profiles and see what information they could gather. At the end of the session, the group reconvened and discussed their results and the information they were able to gather from the social media profiles they had studied.

Later that morning, all students returned to the NEIT theater space to hear from Microsoft's Dino Ciccone, also a Cranston resident and the parent of young daughters, who showed several future technology videos and spoke to the group about the technology they were seeing and about the presence of women in the STEM fields.

"There are not a lot of women in this field, yet many of the best managers and colleagues that stick in my mind over the years have been women," he said. "Career and tech does not limit you to a technology company only. When you consider your career path, remember that. It's is what you make of it, keep that in mind."

Dr. Douglas Sherman, Senior Vice President and Provost for New England Institute of Technology addressed the group, welcoming them to the NEIT campus and encouraged the students to be sure to look around at the various technology labs and classrooms as they passed through the halls of the building.

"Today is a great opportunity for you to explore careers in technology," he said. "There is such a demand for high tech skills and our governor, Gina Raimondo, has worked hard to bring high tech companies here and there will be lots and lots of jobs available for people with these high tech skills."

Sherman welcomed keynote speaker Gov. Gina Raimondo, who expressed her pleasure at seeing so many girls represented at the technology event.

"It fills me with excitement and pride to see a room filled with women," the governor said. "Marian Wright Edelmen once said, 'It's hard to be what you can't see,' and if you can't see what a woman engineer or scientist it's hard to dream about being that one day."

She spoke of being the first woman governor of Rhode Island and how proud she is to hold that title.

"It's so important to dream about what you see, to dream about being a college student, to have a good, fun, interesting, fulfilling, high-paying job in technology. Be that, strive for that," she said. "Reach, believe and have the skills to get a good job, and to have financial independence and freedom."

Raimondo described her CS4RI computer science initiative, which was started in conjunction with Microsoft, URI, code.org, making Rhode Island first in the country to have computer science classes in every school in Rhode Island at every grade level. She also discussed her Rhode Island Promise initiative, which if passed, hopes to help students attain a college education and accrue less debt in doing so, by utilizing free college opportunities at CCRI, RIC and URI.

"Almost every job out there has some computer skills needed," she said. "Digital skills, computer skills are becoming essential skills and just as important as Reading, Writing, Math and History." Raimondo shared some statistics from the AP Computer Science test, which was given out in Rhode Island several years ago, which prompted her to create initiatives for students in the areas of computer science and in higher education.

"Only 42 students in the whole state took the test," she said. "There were zero kids of color, and only 12 were girls. I saw those numbers and I said, 'We've got to do something about this because half the world's population is girls, so that's half the world's brains, problem solvers, and leaders, and if you're assembling a team, you want the best talent out on the field, and you wouldn't exclude half the population."

She thanked the teachers and principals for their support, and the community partners for theirs, including NEIT and Microsoft.

"Get fired up about being here, start dreaming and learning what you can be if you get these skills," Raimondo said. "Dream big for yourselves, take all your skills and get out and change the world.".

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