Do You Google?

Today we had the distinct pleasure to welcome Google software engineer Kitt Vanderwater to speak to our middle-school students through the USA Science & Engineering Festival Nifty Fifty Program. This impressive young woman spoke about the wonderful opportunities she has had as a software engineer and her road to success. She inspired our students to believe that they can do it too!

Ms. Vanderwater credits her success to her supportive family and a childhood teacher who made math fun for her - igniting a passion for math and technology. Some surprises she shared with us: Coding is NOT boring. She has traveled to Paris to study art in connection with her work on Google's "Backdrop" project, she met Emma Stone, one of her favorite actresses, while working on a video project, and one of her favorite things about working at Google is the free fro-yo!

Ms. Vanderwater is a very impressive young woman, and we are grateful to the USA Science & Engineering Festival for this fantastic learning opportunity for our students.

The ‘Nifty Fifty’, is a group of 200 noted science and engineering professionals who will fan out across the Washington, DC area in the 2014/2015 school year to speak about their work and careers at various middle and high schools. Featuring some of the most inspiring role models in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, this signature program of the USA Science and Engineering Festival presents students with the latest in green technology, engineering, human health and medicine, astronomy and space exploration, nanotechnology, computer science, and more.