NCWIT int

Wisconsin Affiliate Award Celebration April 13, 2015

4:30pm-6:30pm

Alverno Sister Joel Read Center 3400 S. 43rd St. Milwaukee, WI. 53234-3922

2015 ncwitAward forAspirations inComputing

AgendaEvent Commitee

4:15 p.m.Check-in at the RotundaCeremony in Conference Center

4:30 p.m.WelcomeCynthia Thomas & Girls In Tech-Mke RecognitionsMercedes Fisher, PhD, Associate DeanSchool of Business and Information TechnologyMilwaukee Area Technical College

Introduction of NCWITKatie McKee Ertz, PhD, NCWIT

4:40 p.m.KeynoteDeb Lesavoy, Senior Director – BPT Strategy and Business Operations – Change Leadership, S.C. Johnson

4:55 p.m.Student Perspective (panel)

5:15 p.m.Presentation of AwardsCheryl Nowak, WE EnergiesQiana Ramsey, WE Energies

5:40 p.m.Closing Remarks and SurveysJoe Kmoch, NCWIT-WI

Committee Chair

Joseph W KmochJK ConsultingTel: 414-530-6892E-mail: [email protected]

Committee Members

Mercedes FisherMilwaukee Area Technical College

Tabatha FrozenaNew Resources Cons

Brendan GeeEMC Corporation

Kate KaiserMarquette University

Kathy LangMarquette University

Cheryl NowakWE Energies

Crystal PolakGirl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast

Qiana RamseyWE Energies

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Keynote

Educator Winner

Previous Educator Winners

Deb Lesavoy joined S.C. Johnson in 2013 as Senior Director-BPT Strategy and Business Operations-Change Leadership. She is responsible to establish and maintain an organizational change management discipline to ensure a successful transformation to a new IT operating model. She also manages the Portfolio Management framework, building the necessary business/financial models to support needed investments and acts as the IT Work Process Steward responsible for the strategy, development, and management of BPT operations and governance processes. Previously Deb was VP, IT Governance and Service Management of the Kellogg Company where she

For over twenty years, Dean Johnson has taught Math and Computer Programming courses at the high school level. His Computer Science classes have changed greatly over the years, and the future seems to be no exception. Enrollment in his classes has exploded since a major revision of the curriculum starting in 2007. It changed from a one-semester course with nine boys to four separate courses with over 140 students. Enrollment for girls hovers around 25%! Dean believes that it is his obligation to teach students how to think for themselves and to problem solve. Dean’s work as a part-time Java developer for a local financial start-up company allows him to bring real-world experience into the classroom. He also built a partnership with the nearby university, UW-Whitewater, and serves on its Computer Science Advisory Board. He has assisted many former and current CS students to achieve

Dean Johnson

led the rollout of foundational governance and operational elements for the global IT organization in support of the IT transformational initiative. Along with the development and delivery of IT work processes, she established the IT Program Management Office, created an IT Organizational Change Management discipline and led an initiative to standardize, simplify, and automate IT processes globally following ITIL standards. Before Kellogg’s, Deb was VP, IT Governance and Operational Controls with Lucent Technologies and Director, IT Risk Management, Control and Support Services with Union Carbide. She has a B.S. in Accounting from Skidmore College.

software developer based internships. Dean also partnered with a former alumnus from Fort Atkinson to create an APCS scholarship. Any student who passes the APCS exam earns $1,000 for college. Each year, his CS students participate in field trips to various software related institutions such as Epic Systems, Raven Software, Orbital Technologies, UW-Whitewater. Dean’s long list of accomplishments include: - Co-authoring the new “5 STEPS TO A 5: AP COMPUTER SCIENCE” review workbook (McGraw-Hill) - Authoring 30 new exercises in “Learning to Program with Alice, 3rd edition” - Serving as a presenter at WMC-Green Lake (Wisconsin Math Council), CS4HS, and MESA program (NM) - 2007 Herb Kohl Fellowship Award for Excellence in Teaching winner - 2006 Wildermuth Award for Excellence in Education

2014 2013 2012

Robert (Bob) Gelka Parker HS, Janesville

Tom WozniakRufus King HS, Milwaukee

Rose Hoffman Catholic Memorial HS, Waukesha

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Deb Lesavoy

Senior Director – BPT Strategy and Business Operations – Change Leadership, S.C. Johnson

Madeleine is very active in STEM-related programs in her school and community. She is the Director of Robot Design & Manufacture and the Pit Manager for her school’s FRC robotics team, which competes annually at regional competitions and promotes STEM awareness through Lego League teams in area middle schools. Madeleine is treasurer of her school’s Engineering Club, which competes in the state Rube Goldberg competition. She has become skilled at CAD-CAM

software, including SolidWorks, Autodesk, and MasterCam, through these activities and works to bring young women into her school's engineering program. Madeleine also volunteers through church and school events, and participates in an annual mission trip to repair houses in Appalachia. Madeleine is captain of the Girls’ Varsity Diving team, and a member of her school's National Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, and Spanish Club. She will study mechanical engineering at MIT this fall.

Madaleine Haworth

2015Wisconsin Competition Winner

2015 Wisconsin Competition Winners

Taylor has had a strong interest in computers and their roles in different industries since 6th grade but especially animation and film editing. However, after completing her first CS course junior year, Taylor realized that she’d rather be a developer of the tools and technology than an animator or film editor. For Taylor, creating a program or game that could make an impact on someone else’s life

for the better is an important goal that she will strive to accomplish throughout her career. Taylor is a senior, member of National Honor Society, National Art Honor Society, and Key Club. She is ranked 9 out of 389 students in her high school. She plans on attending UW-Madison studying computer science. Her hobbies include photography, drawing, sports, video games, self-defense, and kickboxing.

Taylor Clinton Menomonee Falls High School


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National RepKatie Ertz is CFO for the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). She worked in R&D for over 20 years at AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent Bell Labs, and Avaya Labs, specializing in Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) and communications middleware. Prior to joining Bell Labs, she spent two

years working on Space Shuttle documentation systems at Lockheed Electronics, based at Johnson Space Center. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Mississippi State University, and her master’s in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

KatieErtzCFO for NCWIT

Irene Hougard

2015 Wisconsin Competition Winner

2014 Wisconsin Competition Runner-up


Mikaela is a sophomore with an affinity for computers and electronics and has been a graphics designer for nearly 5 years contributing her work at school for advertising. She prides herself in a gaming computer she built from scratch. She’s taken an interest in programming/mark-up and has experience in HTML, CSS, Java, JavaScript, and C#. In her programming and Web design classes, she can be seen leading the students. Her school’s IT department has

allowed her to be a student helper at the help desk. Mikaela is pursuing the CompTIA A+ certification and the MSOE certification while taking Web development and programming. She’s leaning towards going to Moraine Park Technical College to complete IT programs. For future employment, she’d like to start out at her high school and gain foundational experience for a higher-level job like a system administrator, network engineer, graphics or Web designer.

Mikaela Kaczmarek Hartford Union High School


Ananya is a Shorewood sophomore and high honor roll student. She began programming in 5th grade going to Exploration Works programming an NXT robot. In 7th and 8th grade, she joined the school's FLL Robotics Team which won the Gracious Professionalism Award. Ananya designed 3-D model of proteins for the SMART Team research and used Origin software to analyze her physics research project on Thermoelectric Energy. She interned at a pathology lab in the Medical College of

Wisconsin working on DNA extraction using Qubi and Nanodrop. She is a copy editor of the school newspaper, a Student Council Representative, Varsity member of the chess club, on the Model UN team, event coordinator for the Science Olympiad in Science Club, and involved in SMART Team, Lake Sturgeon Bowl, Science Olympiad, and Science Fair. She plays violin, piano, chess, and varsity tennis, runs a homework help program, and is a teen advisory board member for the Shorewood Public Library.

Ananya Murali Shorewood High School




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Irene is a senior at Kettle Moraine High School. She has always loved technology, and took her first Computer Science class freshman year at Kettle Moraine. In this class, she learned how to program in Visual Basic and Pascal. Ever since then have loved programming. Two summers ago, Irene received a scholarship to attend Michigan Tech's Women in Computer Science Camp where she learned a lot more about Computer Science and the different job opportunities in the field. Attending that camp has encouraged her to continue learning

more about programming and Computer Science. She plans on attending college and majoring in Computer Science. Outside of school and is involved in a number of extracurricular activities. Irene loves music and arranges music for and play piano, guitar, and percussion. She is a member of Tri-M Music Honors Society as well as National Honor Society. Irene plays AAA Hockey for the Chicago Young Americans, and hopes to play in college while studying Computer Science.

Julia Schmidt Brookfield Central High School


2014Wisconsin Competition Runner-up

2015 National AwardCompetition Runner-up

Wisconsin Competition Winner


Alicia Purdum {Promised Land Home School Academy}Alicia has been studying in computers and technology for many years. She began working with computers around age 10, and she has blossomed since then. When Alicia was in seventh grade, she taught herself objective-c and created a fully functional ios application. Since then, she has been creating applications and computer programs rapidly. In the eighth grade Alicia began working in robotics. She was the captain of the FIRST robotics league in her school, and she created a functional robotic arm by herself. At the beginning

of ninth grade Alicia won runner-up for the national NCWIT award, and won the Wisconsin award. Alicia also began teaching a programming class to younger children, and runs a computer repair business called Bits and Bytes. Towards the end of ninth grade, Alicia began homeschooling so that she could learn at a faster pace. Now in tenth grade, she is in all AP classes, and is set to graduate two years early. She plans to get an undergraduate degree in biochemistry, and a master's degree in prosthetics and orthotics. Alicia plans to attend MIT, and to become a successful prosthetist.

2015 National Award Competition Winner


2014National CommunityCompetition Runner up


Julia started her involvement in computer technology in 7th grade. Since then, she has taken multiple web design, game development, and computer programming courses. She was a teacher's assistant for her AP Computer Science teacher her sophomore year of high school, interned the following year while taking AP CompSci, and completed Data Structures for Engineers at Marquette during her first semester as a senior. Julia was also a Stanford She++ Fellow. Julia helps run a coding club at Swanson Elementary School in order to

get students involved in computer science at a younger age. Outside of her involvement in technology, Julia founded and currently runs the school chapter of the Wisconsin Mock Trial program, is the Vice President for the Brookfield Central chapter of the Junior Statesmen of America, holds a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo, teaches martial arts in New Berlin, and is a part of the National Honor Society. In the future, Julia hopes to pursue a career in Software Engineering and continue to advance her knowledge of technology.

Vandhana Murali Madison-West High School

Vandhana has been interested in computers and electronics since she was little. In fifth grade, she did an independent research project about computers. In this project she took apart an old computer that her teacher gave her. While exploring the depths of the hard disk and motherboard, she found an interest in how CDs are read and how things are saved in the hard drive. Since that time, she has been learning

how computers work. She took AP Computer Science A in her junior year of high school and Intro to Data Structures in UW-Madison during her senior year. She is taking Intro to Computer Engineering at UW-Madison. She will be attending UW-Madison for college next year. She is looking forward to learn more about java and other programming languages and how to create apps for smartphones!


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Samantha Seifert Catholic Memorial HighSchool, Waukesha

Claire Sharpe University School-Milwaukee

Moira Shrader Waunakee High School

Samantha Spohn Sevastopol High School

Sammi is a senior at Catholic Memorial High School and is involved in many activities. She plays soccer and loves to volunteer as a coach for TOPSoccer (a program that works with children with physical and cognitive disabilities). Ever since she was little, Sammi has always been intrigued by technology and logic. More recently, she has developed an interest in computer science. After traveling to Europe and volunteering for TOPSoccer, she has made videos to remember the trips and commemorate the great work of the organization. Sammi even started a Computer Science club at her high school this year and

created a group of students who can help teachers with technology issues called "the Nerd Herd." Most recently, she has been involved with organizing a STEM Challenge for local middle-schoolers to spike their interest in the field. Looking ahead, Sammi plans on majoring in Computer Science at her dream school Stanford University. Her ultimate career goal would be to work for Disney/Pixar as an animator and software engineer. Until then, she plans on working hard to achieve her goals and continue to make an impact in the world of technology.

Claire attends University School of Milwaukee and plans to graduate from Colgate University in New York State in 2019. She will major in Computer Science or Mathematical Economics. Claire enjoyed AP Computer Science in her junior year and participated on FIRST Robotics Team 677. In addition, she loved sharing her love of coding

and computing with elementary and middle school aged children in the US Virgin Islands. Eventually, she would like to earn an MBA and work abroad. Claire currently interns in the IT department at Johnson Controls and plays varsity field hockey and lacrosse.

Moira is a senior at Waunakee High School who has spent several years studying computer programming, starting with Computer Science I as a sophomore in high school and finishing up AP Computer Science as a junior.

She is now studying artificial intelligence development and AI theory on her own, and hopes to go to college and major in computer science, studying the development of AI and how to create lifelike natural-language AI.

A senior at Sevastopol High School, Samantha’s passion for progress is apparent in her involvement in technology and engineering. She participated in Women in Engineering and Engineering Tomorrow’s Careers programs. Her recent interest in coding led to her involvement in the TechGYRLS program at her local Boys and Girls Club where she shares her love of STEM with young girls. Sam helps the Lego Robotics Program at the Door County YMCA. Samantha played in the State and

National FFA Honors Bands, the Birch Creek Symphony, on stage in various plays and musicals. She is the President of her school’s FFA chapter, and a member of The National Honor Society, the math team, forensics team, and student council. She volunteers at Loaves and Fishes and participates actively in several community events. She is eager to contribute to society on any level, which is sure to contribute to her success in her future.








2015National CompetitionRunner-up


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Melinda Szabo Brookfield East High School

Natalie Tack Waunakee High School

Yuchun Wang Sussex Hamilton High School

Melinda’s Hungarian-immigrant parents , a college math professor and a statistician, passed on their love of math. She discovered her talent in Math and noticed her difficulties with English. Her mother introduced her to Scratch to create complex games. She took AP Computer Science where she learned Java. Melinda is busy with sports and math club, and FIRST Robotics. She focused on the electrical and programming parts of engineering. She designed electronic gadgets with Arduino and brought them to life

with C++. Before, she would just disassemble household devices, like alarm clocks or DVD players, and observe the mess of wires and wonderful mechanics. With these experiences, it seemed obvious that Melinda will study Computer Engineering as her prospective major. Nearly every program she reads about sounds interesting .She wants to take part in building an underwater robot while developing AI technology.

Natalie wanted to study computers because she was sure that she would never grow tired of them. Waunakee High school has an exciting IT program (Microsoft Office VB.NET and JAVA). She wants to pursue a career in computers, possibly in medicine. Her mother has worked in IT and has been an inspiration. Natalie enjoys VB.NET writing a quadratic formula calculator, a popup selection for a pizza company, and a hangman game. She participated the "Hour of

Code". . I want to follow a career in Computer Science attending a WI university focusing on the medical field The NCWIT project provided Natalie the opportunity to network and be part of a larger team. She attended a semester at Conserve School in Land o’ Lakes which provided the opportunity to work independently and realize being part of a larger system whether in nature or the workplace.

Yuchun (Peggy) is a junior at Hamilton High School in Sussex, Wisconsin. Her hobbies are reading, writing, and playing soccer. She first got interested in computer science and coding in 8th grade, when she signed up for Computer Programming at her school because she thought it sounded fun. Taking the class reinforced her interest in computing, so she joined her school's FIRST Robotics team and she is currently on the Code Team. Peggy would love to go to MIT or Stanford

for college and double major in Computer Science and Business, or major in Biomedical Engineering. Her biggest dream is to travel all around the world by foot. One of Peggy's greatest accomplishments so far is double qualifying for DECA internationals last year for her Creative Marketing Project and Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making. She is the Editor-in-Chief for her school's student newspaper, the Troubadour.







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Naomi Bhagat New Berlin West High School

Naomi is 15 years old and is in eleventh grade. Some of her technical achievements include getting an A in AP Computer Science, successfully programming a functioning calculator applet in Java, and programming for FIRST Robotics Team NB Blitz. After

graduation, Naomi plans to enroll in either a four-year or five-year college, and is interested in many five-year Master's degree programs. She is interested in majoring in either software engineering, computer engineering, or double majoring in both.

Megan has been on top of her computer science classes at Fort Atkinson High School. During the hack-a-thon Fort created, she and her partner won the Java portion of the competition. Megan has participated in a computer science competition at Marquette University. She was on one of the two Junior Varsity teams that Fort

sent. Participating in competition is one of the greatest technical accomplishments. Megan hopes to go to college, but is still deciding on where to go to peruse a career in computer science. She continues to inspire others to take computer science classes at Fort Atkinson

Megan Charland Fort Atkinson High School


Savannah Evans Janesville-Parker High School

Savannah is a high-achieving student involved in National Honor Society, Zero Robotics, and First Robotics. Savannah enjoys playing Soccer at the varsity level, participating in Gymnastics, loves to write stories, knitting/crocheting, and has been an active member of Chess club and is the team captain. Upon taking the AP Computer Science exam her junior year, Savannah scored a 5 and made it onto her teacher's "wall of fame." Savannah has made many other proud accomplishments including being the third board champion in

2013 by winning four out of five games at the Wisconsin State Chess Tournament and scored first in her age group at the Wisconsin Junior Open for chess in 2014. Savannah hopes to earn a degree in Computer Software Engineering. In the future, Savannah hopes to use her skills to help create efficient computer software that benefits clients, and use her personal profit to donate to research for curing mental diseases and to fund a knitting organization that creates blankets, hats and other goods to donate to those in need.


Madeline Flynn Rock University High School, Janesville

Madeline is an active student in the Computer Science program at her local high school. She received a 5 on the AP Computer Science 1 exam, and is continuing her education in AP Computer Science 2. She has plans to become active in Rockin' Robotics as well as staying active in her local 4-H Club, River Valley. In 4-H, Madeline participates in many projects including Horse & Pony, Visual Arts,

Drawing & Painting, and Computers. She received a Merit on a computer program she wrote. Madeline has dreams of becoming a Software Engineer or becoming a college professor for computer programming. Right now, her top college of choice is Milwaukee School of Engineering, but she will still keep an open mind to any other college.2015

Wisconsin Competition Runner-up

2015 Wisconsin Competition Runner-ups

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Rachel Hunter East Troy High School

Rachel a junior is in her 8th year of participating in the FIRST Robotics program. She is on an all-girls FIRST Tech Challenge robotics team that competes around the Midwest and has been involved in many community outreach projects - including starting a middle school robotics course, teaching an elementary summer school class, and creating a community of girls and women within the FIRST program. On her robotics team, she is the head programmer and manages the team’s Web site and 3 social media platforms.

Because of her dedication to FTC, she was named one of the two Dean's List Finalists in Wisconsin. She is also a member of a FIRST Robotics Competition team from Australia and does work for the Chairmans, Scouting, and Documentation teams remotely. Rachel is part of her school's Technology Integration Squad, Leadership Club, and NASA HUNCH Team. She plans on going to college for aerospace engineering, and wants to someday have an engineering job that helps children.


Ariel Jaeger Catholic Memorial High School , Waukesha

Ariel is a straight ‘A’ student and a third degree black belt in karate. She has just begun her first programming class this year, and has enjoyed it thoroughly so far. She is excited to learn programming and has many ideas of complicated programs that she wants to

make for fun in her spare time. Ariel enjoys the logic involved in programming and feels very proud when her program runs correctly. Ariel plans to go to college to study science (hopefully computer science).


Samantha Johnson Middleton High School

Samantha will definitely be attending college. She is not sure what she'd like to major in, but it will probably be in Computer Science. She is enthusiastic about programming, and has taken 3 classes in school alongside

learning on her own. In the future, she hopes to have a job doing what she loves so she wakes up excited to go to work, even on Mondays! Though her interests might shift, Samantha loves programming games.



Alana Pauls Waunakee High School

Alana hopes to achieve a higher education with a focus in mathematics. She is considering science, technology, and engineering fields such as programming. Alana would like to attend to attend a four- year college and possibly pursue further education. Alana is interested

in Franklin W Olin College of Engineering and is researching other institutions with a strong mathematics focus. Alana completed the classes Computational Thinking with an A+ and Computer Science with a grade of an A.


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Bailey Wort Catholic Memorial High School, Waukesha

Evalise Yang Fort Atkinson High School

Sarah Rybacki St. Thomas More High School, Milwaukee

Rachel Woody Middleton High School

Sarah loves to learn in a pressure-free zone and immerse herself in a project. She started in the robotics club, but discovered she was more comfortable in the theater department. Although acting is not her thing, she loves the people and being a part of the shows. She has recently started taking notes during rehearsals as the Assistant Director. She has also enjoyed creating amateur edited videos using Microsoft software and creating games using different programming software. She hopes to attend

a university upon finishing high school, but has not decided on a major yet. Sarah has many interests, including math, statistics, various kinds of engineering, cinematography, screenwriting, and theater. She likes the idea of working in groups to develop complete presentations/videos about important issues or fictional stories. She is essentially a person with a logical, problem-solving mindset who refuses to deny her creative side.

Rachel's interests range from the binary system to Edgar Allan Poe. She is a member of a computer programming club started by the incredible Lori Hunt. In the club, Rachel works with a team of students to build a Web site for Gilda's Club. Although she only has half a semester of programming under her figurative belt, she has already gained experience in Web site concept, SCRUM, and Java through this service project. Seven years from now, Rachel aspires to be a graduate of an ivy league school. She is drawn towards Web site design and Java, making computer science a definite

major of interest. Rachel dreams of becoming a programming guru and a published author in the not too distant future. She would like not only to engineer software but also to help protect people against it. Somewhere in between pursuing these objectives, she will run a marathon. Rachel spent hours poring over the basic programming interface Scratch and late she experienced dreaming in Java code. A freshman in high school, she dreams, more consciously, to become a ‘coder’ and nothing can stop her now.

Bailey is a senior at Catholic Memorial high School and enjoys being involved in many clubs and activities. She plays rugby with the nationally ranked team at Catholic Memorial. Bailey's passion for helping people is utilized by her leadership position in Operation Michael, Catholic Memorial's Homelessness Awareness Group. As a part of leading the club, she gets to express her love for technology by creating

each PowerPoint to lead the meetings with. She also participates in the school's first Computer Science Club which is working on creating interest-base websites for each member. Bailey plans on majoring in either Engineering or Pre-Medicine next year. In either path, she is excited to be able to continue working channeling her love for math and science into helping others.

Evalise was first introduced to computers in grade school, ever since she has had a keen interest in how they work. In high school, she has taken Computer Science and IT classes. She is currently taking AP Computer Science.

While studying Computer Science, Evalise competed in her high school’s Hackathon. As a result, she and her computing partner won a prize! She plans on going to college after high school and getting a degree in the field of IT or Math.






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THE NCWIT ASPIRATIONS IN COMPUTING PROGRAM THANKS OUR SPONSORS

Program Sponsors

National Sponsors

Local Sponsors

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Wisconsin Affiliate Award Celebration

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