What is this blog about?

I've been in a bit of a twilight zone at work for a while, but I've used that time to think about what I like, what I'm good at, and areas where I've had success.  I've had a lot of conversations and there are some that stand out over the past few months.  One person said that "connecting the dots" is incredibly important.  I realized that that is something I enjoy and that I am good at doing.

So why write a blog?  There were several things in the past few weeks that stood out, where I was thinking "what can I do to help" and "is there a better way to share this?"  Some things that stood out:

• Talking with high school girls at an etiquette dinner our department sponsored, one of them mentioned that she had an interest in combining technology and the arts.  I said "I know someone you can talk to about that."
• Seeing a post on Facebook by a college friend, showing her middle school aged daughter at a local "Girls GetIT Camp."  I jumped in to comment about what a great time it is to be a CS major and all the fantastic things you can do with technology.  My friend wrote back asking for further info.
• Reaching out to incoming freshmen at Virginia Tech who are Aspirations winners.  Contacting them to get early semester events on their calendars, to get them connected with other young women majoring in computer science.
• Seeing students, at all levels getting, getting mentioned in the media for doing something interesting in technology. 
• Posting some of the articles and books on technology, creativity, and/or diversity that I've read that are encouraging, interesting, and worth a read.

I've been thinking for a long time that there are a lot of resources available for students at a variety of levels, but they aren't gathered into one place.  And if you don't know what you are looking for, where do you start?

Creativity, technology, diversifying and increasing the pipeline in STEM, connecting people to resources and sharing cool things in technology that students are doing.  That's where my blog starts: trying to connect the dots, one dot at a time.