Ignite Education at City Neighbors High School meant to examine ‘what education can be’

Baltimore’s first-ever Ignite Education event takes the same approach as the 10 other Ignite events that have happened in the city, with one difference: all 16 speakers will address the same topic.
Organized by the City Neighbors Foundation, Thursday’s Ignite event at City Neighbors High School boasts an impressive lineup, with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, new Baltimore Sun columnist Lionel Foster and Digital Harbor Foundation co-executive director Andrew Coy, among others, each speaking for five minutes, as is standard for Ignite events.
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Bobbi Macdonald, executive director of the City Neighbors Foundation, says it was Baltimore’s tech community that inspired her group to organize the event.
“The tech world is so good at connecting with each other and sharing ideas,” she says. “The education world is often out of fear and worry and concern for the kids. [It’s] afraid to innovate.”
Macdonald, who moved to Baltimore city in 1993 and now lives in the Hamilton neighborhood, says the Ignite Education event will be a “conversation of what education is and what it can be.”
Founded in 2008, the City Neighbors Foundation is responsible for three City Neighbors public charter schools, the first of which actually predates the foundation by five years. Two of the schools are kindergarten through eighth grade, and the high school—where Ignite will be held—will be adding its senior class next year when this year’s batch of juniors matriculates.
Ignite events afford speakers five minutes to present on any topic, with a maximum of 20 PowerPoint slides to go through, each of which is displayed for just 15 seconds.