Ann Arbor’s Cheryl Orosz was Detroit Country Day School’s first female student to earn a math/computer letter, and was once the only young woman in the school’s six-person computer competition club. A photo in her yearbook shows Orosz in front of a chalkboard, teaching her peers about hexadecimal math. For many, it would be obvious where her intellectual passion was destined to lead her.

But, like many women of her generation, Orosz found her professional aspirations (ie. her graduate studies at U-M) derailed by her personal life. Raising kids, no longer on the tech workforce track, she eventually found a part time position with the Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD).

“It was something I could do around school drop offs and school pick ups,” said Orosz.

It was at WISD that Orosz befriended a computer programmer who regularly attended Codemash, a conference that updates and educates developers on the latest tech trends and practices.

“While he was there,” Orosz says “he met Ronda (Bergman) and Julie (Cameron), who founded a chapter of Girl Develop It in Ann Arbor, and he said, ‘Cheryl, you need to talk to these ladies.'” READ THE REST HERE