EHS Kaitlin McKinnon is fourth from the left in the middle

row. She and other award winners stand with Ed Lazowska

and NCWIT’s CEO and Co-founder Lucy Sanders at the

time of the awards ceremony.

Everett Public Schools

February 4, 2008

For more information:

Adriane Bradberry, NCWIT, 303-492-5213

Mary Waggoner, 425-385-4049

Everett High sophomore honored by national technology group

Kaitlin McKinnon, a 10th-grader at Everett High School is among only eight other Seattle area young

women to be recognized in November by the National Center for Women and Information Technology

(NCWIT) in November. The Award for Aspirations in Computing recognizes female high school

students for their computing-related skills and interests and comes with a $500 commemorative

award.

In their announcement of the award, NCWIT officials said the eight young women were honored for

their outstanding aptitude and interest in information technology and computing; solid leadership

ability; good academic history, and plans for post-secondary education.

McKinnon’s interests certainly made her a prime candidate for the award. She admits that her

passion has always centered around creatively combining art and technology, in particular, digital

design, editing and photography. She credits a number of her teachers with keeping that passion

alive. Kathy Anderson, now a teacher at Everett High was McKinnon’s middle school math teacher. “I

use math all the time in computing,” says McKinnon. Former EHS digital photography teacher Brad

Johnson and the school’s current marketing instructor Shane Kleven also helped guide and develop

McKinnon’s skills. Since eighth grade, she has been on her church’s technology team and is

responsible for taping four church services each month. In the summer of 2007 she attended

Microsoft’s Digi Girlz camp and the SPRITE Technology Camp

at Edmonds Community College. As

a result of her interests, experiences and the support she has received from teachers and other

adults, McKinnon plans to pursue a degree in computer science, business administration and/or

communications. “I would love to do promotional advertising,” she notes.

The Award for Aspirations in Computing is

given two times each year to nominees from

areas where NCWIT holds its bi-annual

conferences. The November 2007 conference

was held at the Paul G. Allen Center for

Computer Science and Engineering at the

University of Washington. The recipients

received their awards from Ed Lazowska, the

university’s Bill and Melinda Gates Chair in

Computer Science and Engineering.