The U.S. Department of State awarded IGNITE Worldwide for 14+ years of working with international leaders through the World Affairs Council. The program has been donated and established in countries and communities all over the world since 2006.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) awarded IGNITE Worldwide the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). This award is the highest level of recognition that an organization can receive for excellence in STEM programming.

IGNITE Worldwide’s Founder was selected as the winner of the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE)’s 2014 Unsung Hero Award. This achievement is attributed to her ongoing dedication through IGNITE Worldwide to promoting access, equity and diversity in education and workforce development.

As an award winning, best practice program, IGNITE Worldwide was featured in the journal of the Association for Career and Technical Education. The article, titled “Igniting Women’s Passion for Careers in STEM”, focuses on how the IGNITE program helps schools achieve gender equality in technical classes.

The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology honored IGNITE Worldwide’s Founder as the winner of their 2012 Social Impact Award. The award was given on behalf of Rodgveller’s work at IGNITE Worldwide, providing an affordable, community-based, systemic approach to STEM education and outreach for young women.

IGNITE Worldwide’s Founder, Cathi Rodgveller, was honored by Women’s eNews as one of the top leaders committed to improving the lives of women and girls in the U.S. and internationally. She was also featured as one of their “Seven Who Stretch the Possible” leaders, among other trail blazers for gender equity such as Lilly Ledbetter.

In full support of IGNITE Worldwide’s mission, Senator Cantwell introduced a Bill titled the “21st Century IGNITE STEM Act”. The bill calls for the expansion of IGNITE nationwide and the allocation of funding to encourage girls and underrepresented minorities to pursue studies and careers in STEM fields.

IGNITE Worldwide was awarded the highest recognition as a state and national best practice program by the Department of Education. The award was received by representatives of IGNITE Worldwide at a U.S. Congress briefing in Capitol Hill with the support of Senator Maria Cantwell and Senator Patty Murray.

IGNITE’s Founder published the IGNITE Toolkit in 2007 with the purpose of providing all useful tools, resources, and information necessary to running a highly successful IGNITE chapter. The Toolkit contains eight sections covering everything from underlying principles that guide the work to template letters and surveys. Reading the IGNITE Toolkit will help anyone catch the IGNITE spirit!

In October of 2006, IGNITE was chosen by the World Affairs Council and State Department to teach international leaders how to educate girls about technical careers in their countries. Since this time, IGNITE has met with hundreds of leaders from around the world and helped them establish the program in their communities.

The success of IGNITE was the topic of many local news outlets, including The Seattle Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, KOMO News, and Microsoft News. The stories highlighted the program’s accomplishments to date as well as the need for the program to expand to reach more schools and grade levels. 

IGNITE quickly rose to be the nation’s best program for paving the path of gender equity in vocational training programs at schools. Cisco, one of IGNITE’s earliest industry partners, recognized IGNITE for increasing female enrollment in local Cisco Networking Academies from under 17% to up to 80%. For this achievement, IGNITE received the national Gender Equity Award along with $25k to support the program.

Soon after launching IGNITE, Seattle Public Schools highlighted the program’s unprecedented impact in improving gender equity in technical education. In just 10 months, IGNITE had increased female enrollment to 50% in vocational training programs and technical classes.

In 1998, a federal grant was issued to ensure young women knew about high wage, high demand career choices. Cathi Rodgveller saw the immense potential of this funding and quickly created a network of enthusiastic women in tech volunteers. The women visited schools and spoke with the girls about technical careers, and the girls started taking field trips to the volunteer’s workplaces! The girls’ excitement translated into increased female enrollment in technical classes, and that’s when Cathi knew she had something special.