Workshop at the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center Helped Young Women Learn More About Technology Careers

The  career development department wants to make sure students don’t miss out on opportunities just because they don’t know what’s out there, said trainer Thressa Brown.  

So the department looks for ways to help students explore different careers. On Saturday, the center hosted a workshop with HER Ideas in Motion to help young women in grades 7 to 12 learn more about technology-based fields and interact with women who work in those fields, breaking down gender stereotypes. 

“Our goal is to break down any myths that might be out there,” Brown said. 

HER Ideas in Motion is a nonprofit that Rachel Wilkins Patel began this year. Patel said she is trying to connect professional mentors with young women to encourage more girls to go into technology-based fields. The mentors work in fields like Web development, graphic design and photography.

Nearly 50 students from the eight districts the center serves signed up for Saturday’s program—and more were on the wait list, Brown said. Nanci Coleman, a community liaison for the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center, said the students spent most of the morning in classes, learning about the technical side of Web design and the artistic parts.  

“It was great,” Patel said. “The girls learned how to code.” 

They also spent time putting together their own websites, which some of them later showed off to their peers. Patel said the sites are saved to a secure website, so the students can continue to work on them after the workshop is done. 

The career development department tries to connect students with real-world experiences, Brown said. 

And it’s important to start young. Coleman added that for technology-based fields, students have to have a strong math base. Those decisions have to be made in the middle school and high school grades.  

Coleman said the center hopes to continue this program next year and add some more topics.