Cleveland Fed to host “Girls Make IT Better” on April 17

Inaugural program will introduce 50 John Adams High School students to technology careers

On Friday, April 17, 2015, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland will host a new program designed to introduce Cleveland-area high school girls to careers in technology. The program, Girls Make IT Better, will engage the students with tools, resources, and mentors to inspire greater curiosity about and comfort with emerging, non-traditional career opportunities.

Students participating in the program will have unique opportunities to see how technology can be used to foster innovation and efficiency and to solve complex problems. Programming robots, designing and printing 3D objects, and getting an up close look at the Bank’s high-tech cash sorting equipment, automated guided vehicles, and fully automated cash storage/retrieval system are key components of the program. The goal? Showing the students that technology can be fun, as well as useful.

“For the past several years, our Bank has been recruiting IT professionals to fill positions in our expanding eGov function, and a majority of the applicants have been male. With the continued growing demand for employees with specialized technical skills, we found ourselves talking about the factors that lead women to choose non-traditional career paths,” says Sue Kenney, a senior vice president at the Bank with responsibility for the eGov function.

For the IT and eGov employees who had been serving as coaches and mentors for job readiness programs sponsored by the Bank's Learning Center, designing a program to introduce high school females to technology careers was a logical next step.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks that along with the Board of Governors in Washington DC comprise the Federal Reserve System. Part of the US central bank, the Cleveland Fed participates in the formulation of our nation’s monetary policy, supervises banking organizations, provides payment and other services to financial institutions and to the US Treasury, and performs many activities that support Federal Reserve operations System-wide. In addition, the Bank supports the well-being of communities across the Fourth Federal Reserve District through a wide array of research, outreach, and educational activities.

The Cleveland Fed, with branches in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, serves an area that comprises Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky, and the northern panhandle of West Virginia.

Media contact

Doug Campbell, doug.campbell@clev.frb.org, 513.218.1892