As a father of three girls, I’ve immensely enjoyed my experience in supporting NCWIT as a board member and having our company be the Gold Sponsor. While our event to honor you cannot proceed as planned, I feel compelled to still offer you a few thoughts that I planned on sharing at the awards event.
As the COVID-19 events have forced us to stay at home, it’s also brought parents and children together even more in learning as “virtual learning” has become our new standard. Personally, I’ve been spending more time with my girls reading each week as our entire family is doing a book a week for reflection and learning. This also reminded me of my experience with reading growing up.
When I was very young, my parents were fixated on ensuring I could read at a very young age. They viewed this as the gateway to more learning and an opportunity to open me up to the world. They wanted me to have a head start and advantage with this skillset. As I fell in love with books, at one point in my youth I really absorbed the “choose your own adventure” (CYOA)books. If you’re not familiar with these, let me explain. Most books have a traditional order of reading with a predetermined outcome. But with a CYOA book, you are inserted as the main character, and along the way in reading you have choices to make which then take you to a different chapter and outcome based on your decision. What I loved with this is that my destination was up to me.
Why do I share this?
Parents & Instructors – I can reflect on my parents’ immense focus on reading at a young age as a powerful contributor to my personal story. It’s one of countless contributions they made to help my story develop. Your daughter no doubt can look at you with that same reflection, knowing that you enabled their journey to happen. As we reviewed all of the candidates for this award, there was no doubt a connection to your role. My sincerest hope is that as you see your daughter’s award, you see those very memories with your daughter that proceeded this. You are a principal character in her story.
Award Winners – The key to a best-selling book usually has a compelling beginning with someone working to overcome an obstacle, followed by a broader journey, concluding with a great ending. The fact that we are acknowledging you with these awards is to let you know we’ve begun reading your story and can’t put the book down! What you’ve already done in the beginning of your personal journey is amazing, awesome, and compelling. You are overcoming the gender obstacle. You are already impacting your community. You have a vision for your future. And we can’t wait to keep reading and see where your story goes!
How this story ends is up to you. You are writing a story to rival any best-seller – the story of you. You are the sole author of your story. Author it wisely!
Congratulations Award Winners, Parents, and Instructors,
John Miller
EVP & GM, PDS
NCWIT Wisconsin – Board Member
