Elizabeth Watson 
Ann Motl 
Abdi 
Thea Johnson 
Brett Nelson 
The Broyles Family 
Jill Bateman 
Keyton Klein 
Malcom Walker 
Nicole and Gloria
Ann Motl
When 18-year-old Ann Motl was chosen as a Minnesota Dairy Princess in 2008 it was a dream come true. As the daughter of dairy farmers Mike Motl and Kim Harff of Browerville, Minn., Ann grew up waving to dairy princesses in parades.
Being selected as one of 17 girls to compete for the Princess Kay of the Milky Way title was just one of Ann’s many accomplishments that year. Ann, who has a neuromuscular disease called Charcot Marie Tooth Disease, graduated as the salutatorian of Browerville High School with a 4.2 grade point average. She was also awarded the Board of Governor’s Engineering Scholarship at the University of St. Thomas, where she’s working on realizing a new dream: becoming a biomedical engineer. The former participant in PACER’s and IBM’s 2003 EX.I.T.E. program says the experience pointed her in the right career direction.
“EX.I.T.E. really introduced me to what engineering was,” says Ann. “That really got me started, and the EX.I.T.E. internship took me further on the course.”
EX.I.T.E. (Exploring Interests in Technology and Engineering) is an annual camp held at PACER and sponsored by IBM. After a half-day job shadow experience at Blue Sky Design, which was part of the EX.I.T.E program, Ann discovered her career path.
“Some parts of growing up with a disability were hard, but I never focused on that. I focused on what I could do,” she says. “I couldn’t be a sports star, but if I did well in school, I could achieve success,” she says. “An education is very important if you have a disability, and always trying your hardest.”
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