Women are vastly underrepresented in careers involving science, technology, engineering, and math. If you’re wondering why, it starts in grade school. For decades, girls have been told that STEM is for boys. Cathi Rodgveller has dedicated her life to changing that perception.
Cathi is the CEO and founder of the Seattle-based non-profit IGNITE. Worldwide. It’s an organization that exposes girls and young women to careers in STEM. At no cost to schools, IGNITE connects them with women working in STEM industries to show what’s possible.
In this episode, Cathi explains why everyone wins when discrimination ends and why more women are good for the bottom line. We hope you’ll share this podcast with parents of girls and with teachers. Near the end of the show, Cathi explains how you can bring this important program to a school near you.
Resources from the episode:
- Learn more about IGNITE Worldwide and its award-winning programs here.
- Want to launch IGNITE at your school or a school near you? Go here for more information.
- Click here for volunteer opportunities with IGNITE Worldwide (there are lots!).
- Learn more about becoming a corporate partner here.
- Connect with Cathi on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
Speakers: Cathi Rodgveller and Mark Wright
CATHI RODGVELLER 00:01
All I knew is that this is the work I loved, and I felt a deep burning desire to change what’s happening for girls and women to give them a pathway that would inspire them because I know what happens in schools and will never change the statistic for women and gender diverse students if we don’t level the playing field and show them the way.
MARK WRIGHT 00:28
This is the BEATS WORKING Show. We are on a mission to redeem work. The word, the place, and the way. I’m your host, Mark Wright. Join us at winning the game of work. Welcome to the show. Today’s episode is about how we can end the gender and inequality gap when it comes to STEM education and careers. Our culture has long told girls and women that STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math is simply a man’s world. And the numbers show that stereotype has created a self-fulfilling prophecy. According to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up just 27% of workers in STEM fields, and yet they make up more than half the US population. Our guest is Cathi Rodgveller. She has dedicated her career to helping change that reality. Cathi started her career as a teacher and middle school counselor. She then created a program in Seattle public schools to help more girls enter STEM careers, but she discovered by starting a nonprofit, she could make a much bigger impact. That nonprofit is called IGNITE Worldwide. Cathi is its founder and c e o at No Cost to Schools. IGNITE brings girls into businesses to meet women working in STEM fields. I hope you’ll share this episode with parents of girls and also with teachers you know. Near the end of the episode, Cathi explains how easy it is to bring IGNITE to a school near you. Enjoy. Cathi Rodgveller, welcome to the BEATS WORKING podcast. It’s good to have you here.
CATHI RODGVELLER 02:15
Thank you, and it’s really exciting to be here today.
MARK WRIGHT 02:18
So, Cathi, you’re the founder and the CEO of an organization called IGNITE Worldwide, which stands for Inspiring Girls Now in Technology Evolution. So, Kathy, for people who haven’t heard of IGNITE, tell us what it is and, uh, how it works.
CATHI RODGVELLER 02:34
Sure, thank you. IGNITE Worldwide is an organization that serves young girls all the way from elementary school, actually through college and post-secondary. So, a very wide range of age, and we serve gender diverse students as well, and we worked directly with teachers during the school day to make sure that young women have role models and that they meet women who do these careers every day and hear their story about how, what were they like when they were the girls’ age? What obstacles did they face when they were their age, and all the way through. What is their job like and why do they love what they do? Um, so having role models really changes a girl’s perception of what’s possible in her life, and, um, we also, you know, this is the panel part of the event, but also we make sure that girls have an experience. So, they get to try all kinds of different technology depending on what that company does. Um, some companies do coding workshops or UX design or, um, we work with artificial intelligence companies that, I mean, the range is so wide that girls learn about hundreds of career choices, which is a very complicated world we live in today. So how could they possibly know what these choices are? I mean, it’s not just becoming a a coder. I mean, not everybody’s gonna want to write software or develop software, so it’s really about providing a very wide range of career choices, and teachers are very interested in making sure that young women and gender diverse students are in their classes but there’s really no way for a young woman or gender diverse student to learn about these careers because frankly, mostly boys have been doing this kind of, um, exploration since they’re really young, and mostly 99% of these classes are filled with young men. So, in order to level the playing field and to help girls get on these paths much sooner, much earlier. For example, principals of engineering is a middle school class, and if we’re ever gonna have girls in that class, they need to know why that’s important, so, that’s what IGNITE is. Um, and there’s a lot more I could talk about, of course. Uh, maybe a little bit about how we started and the importance of our organization.
MARK WRIGHT 05:23
Yeah. Yeah. I want, we’ll get to that in just a sec. That’s a great introductory statement, Cathi, about, about what IGNITE is. Um, and we know there’s a disparity there and we know that it begins in schools, and it starts in society as well, but, first of all, I want to go back in your career cause I really wanna understand more about you as an educator. You started your career as a teacher and a counselor in New York City right, in the 1980s?
CATHI RODGVELLER 05:47
That’s correct. I started as an elementary school count, uh, teacher in East Harlem, New York at a really special school. It was, uh, edu about education reform and about understanding how to create a child-centered classroom, and it really inspired me to understand how we can change education to make it a really much more enriching experience for our students.
MARK WRIGHT 06:18
That sounds like a progressive, uh, thing for the 1980s. I mean, it sounds even progressive today. How did all, how did that come about in terms of who, whose idea that was?
CATHI RODGVELLER 06:28
Yes. Well, I was fortunate enough to attend a city university in New York, Queens College, and they had a very special program, teaching program, which I entered in my senior year of college, and the program was, most student teachers get maybe one day a week in the classroom, but in this particular program, it was every day, all day, and for the whole entire year, I spent in, in this, uh, Central Park East in East Harlem, and the principal, uh, actually is famous. She’s written books and taught at Harvard. Um, she was, uh, really, um, a major presence in education reform early on, and she was the principal, and so I learned so much from her and I was inspired by her to understand that education, there’s a lot of ways to go about teaching children, but the most important thing we can do is to keep them excited about learning because sometimes school can be, you know, much more rote or doing worksheets or, and this, this type of classroom was where we focused on a child’s interest and then they learned Math and Science and reading all through their interests, which is a much better way of inspiring someone to wanna learn.
MARK WRIGHT 7:56
So true. Cathi, I’m curious, did you always want to be a teacher?
CATHI RODGVELLER 08:02
Well, I really wanted to work with children. It was something that I loved. I babysat when I was a teenager and I, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, and when I discovered this program, I think a light bulb went on for me, and I have really loved my career. I’ve been in education all my life since college days, and I’ve loved every minute of it.
MARK WRIGHT 08:30
Cathi, where did the idea come from that girls and women are not good at Math and Science?
CATHI RODGVELLER 08:37
Well, that’s a really good question. You know, I think that for women in general, a historical perspective, um, you know, we don’t focus on women’s accomplishments and in a history, for example, I mean, women who’ve done so many things and none of us can recall who or what? And so, you know, this should be changing as we develop and progress, and because frankly, if we don’t include all of our students in STEM, we won’t be able to compete as a country. I mean, that’s the end goal is we need everybody involved in STEM in our country, and 50% of our population is not, because I worked in Seattle schools for 18 years. I ran this program there myself, and I made sure that young girls knew about the classes and clubs at their school that were the STEM pathway, and after IGNITE started at a school in Seattle, there were 50% or more female enrollment in that, in those classes, which led us to win the National Gender Equity Award, uh, from the Department of Education and the Presidential Award from the White House and the National Science Foundation. Um, frankly, what happened early on is, when I started doing this program, and I called women who worked at Microsoft and Cisco and all the companies here in Seattle, and I said, would you come and share your story with young women in the schools? And they were so excited because they had worked so hard to get where they are, and oftentimes they were the only woman in their department or their team, or their company. I mean, this was in late nineties, and they were just thinking if there was any way I can help young women realize the potential of these careers. So as soon as I called some women, they told their friends and I had more volunteers than I could handle, frankly, and we’d go into the schools, Seattle schools, and I’d focus on all the programs that we had. We had Computer Science and Engineering, and the skilled trades, for example, and after I brought IGNITE to the school, all the classes had over 50% female enrollment, and that is really what got the attention of the Department of Education here in Washington. And at that time, there was a gender equity coordinator at OSPI, which is our Department of Education, and, um, frankly, all of that gender equity money went away from the government, but that was, you know, the money I was hired on in Seattle schools. So, because we were so successful, the Department of Education here in Washington made sure that I was at every teacher’s conference, and that IGNITE was held up as the best practice, but teachers would remind me, well, Cathi, how are we gonna do this program without you? You are the one that knows you know how to do this. So that’s what prompted me, along with our national award in 2007 to start the nonprofit because teachers from was all over Washington State, begged for this program. They said, well, if we’re gonna get more girls in our classes, and gender-diverse students, we need to show them these role models and we need to help them understand how these careers are so important, but I can’t do that alone. So that’s really how the program started to grow here in Washington is the work through the nonprofit, and honestly, I had more volunteers than I could handle because when women go into these fields, what they really feel motivated to do is to help the next generation understand what these careers are about and how exciting they are and how to get on the path early.
MARK WRIGHT 12:44
That’s really amazing, Cathi, and, uh, super inspiring. Um, I wanna go a little bit more into the bias that I know there have been studies done in the school system that teachers call on boys more often than girls and there’s a, a bias in schools that, that suggests that girls just aren’t good at math and science, and I know that’s been proven over, over time in through studies. What do you think that that bias still exists in our, in our education system today?
CATHI RODGVELLER 13:15
So, there were some things that really fed into that um, NPR does a podcast, planet money, and, um, on one of the shows, uh, and I actually saved it. They talked about how um, when computers first started becoming a tool that people could buy, it was advertised as a boy’s toy, and the advertisements would say, dads, why don’t you get this for your son? And you can help him do homework on it and develop programs, and so even early on when technology started becoming something people could use in their own homes on our, on their own desks, it was really focused on. Boys, and so if, if that’s how society is, you know, looking at it, if that’s the lens that’s being presented, then early on girls are not being included, and that’s a big problem. Um, girls and boys. equally love or hate math. I mean, there isn’t any internal, um, function that says girls can’t do math but, but the issue is, I mean, there’s a lot of issues as far as math goes. For example, in second grade, there’s a lot of studies that show that if a child is falling behind in second grade and they’re not getting the concepts. Each year they’ll fall further behind. So, there’s real research to show that, that math education is just about understanding the concepts and, and keeping up with those concepts, not about how smart you are or, or anything like that. It’s just a perception, but if you fall behind, you fall behind, and then you’re missing certain concepts that built on these concepts for, for more advanced concepts. That’s all it is.
MARK WRIGHT 15:18
Yeah. That happened to me in grade school, and I never caught up and I, I, I’m not sure. I, I just, I don’t know that my brain is super wired for math. I think it’s more verbal, but I totally get what you’re saying. You know, once, once you start to fall behind you, you fear it and you avoid it, and it’s just, uh, sometimes impossible to catch up. Cathi, I wanna talk more about identifying disparities. I’m, I’m a big believer in simply doing the math, like how come just one in 10 Fortune 500 companies are led by women 1 in 10 in the US Senate, 1 in 4 members in the US Senate is a woman, and yet they represent 50% of the US pop, population. What do the numbers say when it comes to women in STEM occupations right now?
CATHI RODGVELLER 16:02
Right. I really glad you brought this up, and this is the reason why this organization is so important. It, it really is about expectations. Um, if we don’t expect girls to be in classes that are STEM-focused and on a STEM pathway early, then they won’t be. And these classes are all electives at school. So, even though the teachers, they want girls in these classes, there’s a barrier to getting them there because girls do not perceive themselves this way. There’s a perception issue. Girls will put barriers in their own way before, before anybody else, they’ll do it for themselves. They’ll say, no, I’m not good at that, I’m not good at Math. It, you know, that’s how kids are. If they get a bad grade in something, they’ll think I’m not good at that, and that’ll be it. They’ll make up their mind, and that’s the issue we have in our, in America. I mean, I’ve taught in different states, I’ve taught at different schools, and I see it everywhere. There’s a problem with our young girls that they have this perception in general that they shouldn’t be pursuing these careers, and then again, in our communities, they don’t even know what these careers are because we live in a very complex world where there’s hundreds of career fields in STEM and how are they ever supposed to learn about where these classes lead? Or why they should be in them unless they see role models and understand, and, and that’s what the magic of IGNITE is. They get to meet women in so many different career fields and hear their story, and immediately the girls’ perception, the light bulb goes on for them and they say to themselves, wait a second. I had no idea. Nobody told me. And that is really the simplicity and beauty of this program is that the teachers really want to get girls into these classes. They believe that they’re missing from these classes, and statistics show us 95% of all STEM classes are filled with boys, and that’s why we get the result in the world when you look at companies and you say, why aren’t women progressing? Because we’re not addressing the root issue, and the root issue is our schools. When they’re young, because I’ll give you an example. If a young woman happens to find herself in a STEM class in college, whether it be Computer Science, Engineering, or any of those technical classes, she will be surrounded by young men and all of those boys, like she’ll think to herself, how come I don’t get what’s going on? How come everybody else seems to get it? And she doesn’t have any context for the fact that these young boy, these boys have been in these classes since they’re little. Like they get this because this is something they’ve been studying forever, and a young girl ends up in a college class and says, what? Why not? Why do you think they’re dropping out so quickly? Because they don’t get the fact that they weren’t on this path much earlier. So, we’ll never get where we wanna go, as in terms of getting half the population into STEM unless we address the root issue, which is very early on in K-12 education.
MARK WRIGHT 19:40
Yeah, I was gonna ask you that, Cathi, I, I’m hoping that there are parents with young girls listening to this podcast. What, what’s the ideal age to start exposing girls to the idea that STEM is an option in school and then later in occupations?
CATHI RODGVELLER 19:55
Every age is important. I mean, I’d like to get young girls before they believe they can’t do it, and in elementary school before puberty, girls are excited about learning and they’re excited to experiment and try new things, and then puberty hits. I was a middle school counselor for many years before I did IGNITE, and so I saw up close how girls changed. When, you know, from fifth grade to eighth grade, and I know from experience that they start to minimize. You know, looking smart or getting excited about learning and much more towards the social things, which is what puberty is like. You know, you want to have friends and have people like you and all of that, and that’s important, except that it’s at the expense of them, you know, caring about their career and their future and, and of course at that age, it seems so far off but our responsibility as adults is really to help them get excited about STEM. Like that’s the part we’re missing, and why IGNITE does that is because they get to have fun. They go with their friends, it’s you know, when there’s one girl in a Computer Science class, there’s the odds are against her. She has no support, nobody to talk to, nobody to do homework with. I mean, maybe the boys will do it with her, but it’s not, doesn’t happen that way. It’s oftentimes where she needs to go with other girls. That’s what IGNITE is about. All the girls together and having the girls be leaders have an experience of leadership in a STEM experience. So, when they do activities in IGNITE, there’s nobody kind of pushing them aside and pushing themselves forward, as would happen if it was a mixed group, because I’ve done a lot of mixed groups when I first started IGNITE to, to test this theory, and girls will not participate or speak up when boys are on their team or in the room because they don’t feel confident enough. So, they need to build their confidence in an atmosphere where all girls are there, and they get to be you know, practice their leadership and, and actually everybody touch the materials and actually have a positive experience, um, that is so needed for them to gain confidence.
MARK WRIGHT 22:36
I’m glad you said the word team, Cathi, because brain scientist, Dr. John Medina has been a guest on this podcast to talk about his book, “Brain Rules for Work,” and, and John says, the science is absolutely clear on this point. The more women you have on teams at work, the more productive and successful those teams are, and it has to do with a concept called theory of mind, which basically is. A person’s ability to understand the thinking and motivation of other people, and John says, the science is also clear on this: women are twice as good at theory of mind than men are. They’re twice as good as, at understanding what motivates, uh, other people. So, so with that said, every business in America could become better by simply adding more women to their process. I mean, that’s what’s so crazy about this whole thing, is that the prejudice and the discrimination that has been so systemic through all of our culture for centuries, is still, we’re still stuck, and yet the science is absolutely clear that every company could benefit and, oh, by the way, make more money if that’s the way you’re going to, to judge it, by just simply adding women.
CATHI RODGVELLER 23:53
I’m really glad you brought this up, Mark, because the truth is when I talk to company representatives and it’s senior executives who I work with quite a bit, I say, this is actually, the bottom line actually improves, and we’re sending a pipeline of young women your way and, and diverse, you know, we, we go into title one schools which is our, the greatest need, frankly. But every girl should have this experience. But the truth is that I’m, I’m really glad you brought that up because when I talk to company representatives, I focus on the fact that it does improve the bottom line to make sure that we have diverse groups of people working on products and teams at our companies, and you will get a better product if there is a diverse group of people, and that is scientific proof. We know that is true, but how will we get those mixed groups? How will we achieve that? And frankly, the only way to achieve that is to start changing girls’ minds about these careers. Yeah. And get them in the pipeline and in these classes much earlier, and everybody will win. Everybody will succeed. It’s a win-win for everybody.
MARK WRIGHT 25:14
So, Cathi, this idea started, you started in with this at, uh, Seattle Public Schools, and then the nonprofit started in 2007.
CATHI RODGVELLER 25:22
Is that right? It is correct. I actually worked at Seattle Schools doing this program for 18 years because I didn’t, as a teacher, I didn’t really know how to get, how to do development or start getting funding for a nonprofit so I could transition to do this full-time. So, I did it for a number of years, both, I worked in Seattle schools, and I ran the nonprofit and eventually, uh, amazing volunteers put together a gala, a spring gala, and uh, in 2016 I was able to transition to this full-time.
MARK WRIGHT 26:00
That’s fantastic. So, Cathi, I’m, I’m guessing there are parents listening who really would love to engage with IGNITE. Um, you know, you’re taking girls out of the classroom, you’re taking them into workplaces to listen to inspiring women in, in the tech and, and sciences. Um, how, how do parents get involved? How do teachers get involved if they want, want to learn more about IGNITE?
CATHI RODGVELLER 26:26
Sure. So, our website is IGNITEworldwide.org, and the way we deliver our program is in schools. So frankly, there needs to be a teacher who wants to do the program, and oftentimes it’s in career and technical education because those are the classes that are STEM-focused and are stem. You know, on that pathway. Um, so if I were a parent, I’d learn more about what classes are available at school, and approach the teacher with the program and say, would you be willing to give it a try? Because. We surround all of our services to support teachers. That’s what we do here, and we wanna make this easy for teachers. Literally, teachers just bring the girls, and we do everything else for them. We set up all the events with these companies and we work with, you know, at least there’s a list of a hundred companies. I mean, we are growing companies all the time, and so, it’s really about finding the teacher that is excited about this, and in doing this work for 25 years now, I’ve never run across a school that didn’t have at least one or two or three teachers who jump up and down when they learn about IGNITE. So, it’s just finding that teacher or teachers, cause they can do it together, or a school counselor. Um, and just have them try it. Bring a group of girls and, uh, see what they think. Because once a teacher tries the program, they realize this is something really important.
MARK WRIGHT 28:09
Cathi, I’d like to have you channel, uh, I mean, the fact that you were a middle school counselor, I think you deserve a medal. My wife works in a middle school every day she comes home. I’m like, I don’t know how you do it, but God bless you for yes for wanting to do that but, uh, I’d love you to talk directly to, to parents. Cathi, if you would, and also maybe, maybe a middle school girl who might be listening out there. Um, you’ve had so many conversations in your, in, you know, earlier in your career. Talk directly to them and, and what would you say to inspire them when it comes to, you know, stepping up and getting excited about STEM?
CATHI RODGVELLER 28:47
Yeah. Well, for young girls, It’s, it’s really about understanding how important these careers are to your future and how exciting they are. I mean, this is cutting edge that’s changing our world. I mean, for girls it’s really important to make a difference in the world to help people. I mean, girls and women are very motivated by wanting to make things better and helping people, and that’s what technology is all about, and sometimes we don’t make that connection for girls, but in IGNITE we do. We show them all the ways technology actually helps people. I mean, technology is cleaning our oceans, technology is helping climate change. Technology is, um, helping people who have, uh, all kinds of, uh, you know, maybe access issues. There are so many ways technology is helping people and, uh, our planet, and that’s the connection we need to make for young girls because that’s what they get excited about. So, if you’re a young girl, come to IGNITE and find a teacher at your school who you really admire and show them the website because then you get to meet and talk with women who do these careers every day, and they’ll help inspire you to think about all the things that you can pick from. There’s so many choices now about what you can do in the world, and it ju, it is just about matching up with your interests, what you like to do, and for parents it’s focusing on like, you know, your kid best. What do they enjoy? What, what do they really like? And then, it’s focusing on, you know, helping develop them through their interests. Because all of us will wanna end up doing things that they, that we love and that we’re passionate about. I mean, that’s what’s most important.
MARK WRIGHT 30:54
I have a friend who is, uh, one of the senior vice presidents at Blue Origin. The rocket company. She’s literally a PhD rocket scientist. Her name’s Erica Wagner and, uh, we’ve gotten to know each other over the years, and I just, I absolutely just adore her. She is brilliant, but she called me, uh, this is maybe six, eight months ago, she said, Mark, I’ve been tapped to anchor coverage of one of our rocket launches, and I need some advice on how to anchor, and I’m thinking you are one of the smartest people I’ve ever met in my life, but I would love to teach you a couple of tips on, on how to, uh, you know how to present to a camera. She, she’s amazing, and you know, that’s the kind of, that’s the kind of person that if a middle school girl or a grade school girl got to meet Erica face to face out at Blue Origin. And got to see that she literally is, is helping lead us into space, and it starts, it starts back in that class in middle school. You know, and that’s, that’s what’s so exciting about this. And Cathi, I wanted to just end on something that I think is really cool. You took, um, a passion for kids, uh, that turned into a vocation, uh, and you turned that into something that is creating social change, and I think that’s a really, admirable exciting thing and, and I think what you have shown through your career, I think is something that other people could do through their careers. I mean, regardless of what the discipline is, that passion for helping you went from there to create an amazing nonprofit that is, changing the lives of thousands of, of girls and women and, and creating a, a major social change. What’s your advice to someone who might be listening to the podcast? Um, you know, because we call it BEATS WORKING and cause this stuff that we’re passionate about doesn’t feel like work. What’s your advice to somebody who might be thinking about how do I make a bigger difference with my vocation in the world?
CATHI RODGVELLER 33:00
Yes. Well, the truth is that it’s really important to do the work you love. Like, you just have to focus on the things that you really enjoy and believe in yourself. I think that’s what it is. You know, we all lack confidence a little bit because maybe we’ve been told, you know, that isn’t something you can make money with or, or that’s not gonna be a good career. You know, people say all kinds of things, but we have to kind of not listen to that. We have to listen to that little voice inside ourselves that says, you know, I love this because I’ve loved my career. I really have felt such joy around the work I do, and I am so grateful, but I didn’t really focus on sitting here as a CEO and founder. I mean, I never thought about that. I just continued to do the work that I cared about, and I ended up here, but it certainly wasn’t something I was trying to do, to be honest. I just really cared about making sure girls had access to STEM and to high-wage, high-demand careers that could give them a great future, and helping them understand that there’s a career for everybody in STEM. Any interest you have, you can find a pathway that you will love. So that’s what’s important is stay in the moment and bloom where you’re planted, and if it’s not something that is bringing you joy or making you feel happy, you know, maybe it’s time to think about a change and really, you know, I, it took a lot of courage to leave Seattle schools. I mean, I was a senior teacher. I had a pension, I, I been there a long time and to run a nonprofit, which I never did before, to be honest. I mean, I started out myself in a halftime person, and I had no idea if or this would be successful. All I knew is that this is the work I loved, and I felt a deep burning desire to change what’s happening for girls and women to give them a pathway that would inspire them because I know what happens in schools and we’ll never change the statistic for women and gender diverse students if we don’t level the playing field and show them the way. If we don’t have this in all of our schools, we won’t make a change in this country. So, I took the leap and it wa, it was scary, I have to tell you, but sometimes we have to do things that are scary.
MARK WRIGHT 35:33
I’m gonna end on this, Cathi, and that is, I think IGNITE is the perfect, um, acronym for for what you’re doing, because what you’re literally doing is putting a spark inside of kids, and I think the most heartbreaking thing in the world is when someone does something or says something that puts that spark out. Um, that is heartbreaking to me. And I think the work that you’re doing it’s just utterly fantastic and so inspiring, and thank you so much for the work that you’re doing, and I know that thousands of families are grateful too.
CATHI RODGVELLER 36:34
Wow. Thank you, Mark. I really appreciate being given this opportunity to speak with you today and to reach our wider community to help them understand that this program is here for any school that wants it, and we don’t charge schools money. It’s no cost to schools. So, you know, please, let’s all make sure more girls have access to this.
MARK WRIGHT 37:01
Cathi, this has been so fun and so rewarding, and, uh, keep up the, the fantastic work.
CATHI RODGVELLER 37:08
Thank you, Mark. I plan on it.
MARK WRIGHT 37:13
I’m Mark Wright. Thanks for listening to BEATS WORKING, part of the WORKP2P family. New episodes drop every Monday, and if you’ve enjoyed the conversation, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. Special thanks to show producer and web editor Tamar Medford. In the coming weeks, you’ll hear from our Contributors Corner and Sidekick Sessions. Join us next week for another episode of Beats Working, where we are winning the game of work.
