Maddie Darveau, senior at Waukee High School and APEX Alumna, will be honored as a finalist at the Women of Innovation awards dinner on November 10, 2015 in the Youth Innovation and Leadership category. The Women of Innovation Award, presented by the Technology Association of Iowa (TAI), elevates and celebrates today’s extraordinary women. The event dinner and award is dedicated to recognizing women who are leaders in science, technology, engineering or math. Students at both the secondary and college levels will also be recognized.
Maddie was nominated for this prestigious award by demonstrating leadership and academic achievements in the specific field of technology. Maddie has remarkable gift of blending her loves of leadership, creative design, and technology to inspire those around her. Maddie was a member of the Spring 2015 Designing Communication Solutions course hosted at DLR Group in Des Moines.
She has shown impressive leadership as the Waukee HyperStream Club as the Operation Coordinator for the past two years. Under her tenure, the club has grown to over 80 students strong and 40% females in the club. Maddie has also served as Project Manager for the Multimedia Teams, utilizing web design, graphic design, and video skills to take home a 1st place trophy in the 2014 IT Olympics and 2nd place in the 2015 IT Olympics. She also helped establish First Take Filmmakers, a community service campaign working with elementary students to find love of technology through video creation.
Maddie also lends her expertise to the Fashion Club, where she served as Co-Producer of the past two years’ charity fashion shows, raising over $3,000 for various charities such as Blank Children’s Hospital and LifeServe Blood Center. Maddie is also the Co-Founder of an online media campaign, Stories of Waukee(storiesofwaukee.com), which showcases the intimate lives of Waukee students and staff to promote communication and connection within Waukee High School. The platform shares resources covering topics such as future planning, communicating with parents, and mental health.
Maddie shared, “I am very excited to be nominated for this award and to be representing Waukee, especially the potential that all the students, females in particular, have. I am looking forward to the banquet and hearing the results, even if I don’t win because the other nominees have also done incredible things.” We are very proud of Maddie’s many accomplishments and being nominated as a finalist.
Watch Maddie’s bio video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxpFm2T2zj8&feature=youtu.be.