Celebrating and Supporting Women in STEM!

March was a very eventful month for WISE.  This month we collaborated with Women in Optics and the Women in STEM Student Council to host the annual Science and Engineering Excellence Banquet and Launching Your Career Symposium.  These events provide an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of women in STEM, while also providing a forum for students to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed along their STEM journeys and into the workforce.  

We were thrilled to have two amazing keynote speakers.  Dr. Roberta Diaz Brinton, Director of the UA Center for Innovation in Brain Science and world-reknown Alzheimer's researcher gave the keynote address at the banquet.  Dr. Brinton's talk compelled us all to think about how we are all are leaders and how our relationships with ourselves shape our relationships and interactions with others.  The symposium featured a keynote by Cyndi Atherton, PhD, the Science Program Director at the Heising-Simons Foundation. In her presentation, Dr. Atherton shared what she has learned about both being successful in the sciences and fostering more inclusive STEM communities through her personal and professional experiences. In particular, she talked about the importance of recognizing failure and being willing to ask for help and advice when things do not go as planned. 

The symposium also featured an interactive workshop with Iwona Paluski of the Aerospace Corporation. This workshop guided participants through an exercise to identify their strengths and think strategically about how to draw on them to craft effective resumes and responses to interview questions.  The event was capped off with two panels featuring successful women in STEM who shared their experiences and advice regarding entering and succeeding in th early stages of a STEM career.  All in all the banquet and symposium successfully celebrated and nutured women in STEM at various career stages.  Over 88% of symposium attendees said that attending the event made them feel more confident as a woman in STEM and more capable of succeeding.  We look forward to hosting these events next year and continuing to celebrate and support women in STEM!