Launching Your Career Symposium, 2020

Each year, the Women in Science and Engineering Program and Women in STEM Studetn Council organize the Launching Your Career Symposium. LYC is a day-long professional development and networking symposium targeting female STEM students. Through a variety of workshops, panels, and presentations, the event aims to help women develop the skills and relationships necessary to successfully launch their STEM careers.

This year’s symposium took place on January 31st and kicked off with a keynot epresentation by Alaina Levine’s on “Creating your Unicorn Career”. In this presentation, Ms. Levine strongly encouraged the attendees to build relationships that connected them with the things they enjoyed, and to take the initiative and develop a bigger vision to accomplish a successful fusion between their careers and their passions. Throughout the event 4 workshops were held, topics covered included negotiation, interviewing skills and strategies, identifying and applying your strengths to land your dream job. In addition to the workshops, two panels took place, they were focused on personal development and growth, like getting in and surviving graduate school and dealing with mental health challenges. The event concluded with an intersectionality panel which discussed how true diversity requires us to pay attention to different forms of diversity beyond just gender diversity. This event enabled over 150 women in STEM to become more empowered while developing a whole new set of skills and perceptions that will help them persist along their STEM journeys and successfully transition into the STEM workforce!