Women in Technology: From School to Career

Silver Creek High School is a tech giant when it comes to schools in Colorado. There are a multitude of ways to get into the technology field. With the mass amount of classes they offer at the school and Innovation Center, including robotics classes and ethical hacking. Alongside the school’s RaptorTECH program, a program where students can take college courses in cybersecurity and earn a degree in that field by the end of their senior year.

One of the great things about Silver Creek’s multitude of programs is that anybody can take the classes. Whether they’re male, female, non-binary, or genderqueer, anybody from the freshman to senior class can take courses in technology.

“The computer science programs here at Silver Creek are pretty good at fostering your creativity,” Junior Haiden Morrison, a student in computer science at the school, says. “You can really expand upon your knowledge of a certain field and apply those skills to make something that you’re interested in.”

This inclusion in Silver Creek programs is incredibly good, because historically, careers in technology and innovation have been more difficult for women and gender-queer people to get into. The Nation Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) offers wonderful programs and a great support system to change that underrepresentation of people in computing.

For Silver Creek Students, Verlene Dodds and Nina Anadon, the programs Silver Creek has to offer helped them to receive the Affiliate Honorable Mention award, and the Affiliate Rising Star award from NCWIT.

Verlene Dodds, a junior graduating this year at Silver Creek, started computer science classes at Silver Creek her freshman year. Beginning in the AP class Silver Creek offered, her sophomore year was followed by an Ethical Hacking class at the Innovation Center. Her goal for after she graduates is to go straight into the computer science industry, and she’s on track to do it.

“I received the honorable mention for aspirations in computer science, from [NCWIT],” Dodds said. “I started programming when I was about 7 or 8, so I’ve just been doing stuff in that field for a bit over a decade.”

For Dodds, winning this award for interest and aptitude in computing wasn’t a huge deal, because she already knew she wanted to do computer science in the long run as a career.

The same is true for Nina Anadon, who received the Affiliate Rising Star award for technology in Colorado. The award is given out to students who may be just starting out in their technology and computing journey, but who “embody the idea of aspirations and are encouraged to continue their exploration of the field,” according to NCWIT.

“I’ve wanted to have my future with technology, so [the award] didn’t really change anything, but it inspired me more to continue with technology in the future,” Anadon said.

Anadon got into the tech field mostly because of her dad, Rodrigo Anadon, a teacher at Silver Creek. Mr. Anadon teaches Computer programming at the school, and helped both students receive the NCWIT awards.

Winning these awards is a great achievement. These awards can inspire both of the students to continue doing the great work they’re doing in the careers that are surely coming to them both in the tech industry.