Isabella Sanders, GPC
GPC FY2019 Mujan Seif & GPC FY2020 Isabella Sanders For those of you who haven't heard of weSTEM, it is a student run conference for women engineers & scientists held at the University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign. I was fortunate to attend on a travel grant and was incredibly impressed by the content and structure of this conference. Below is a list of my key takeaways:
If you're curious about the conference please see this link https://www.westem.engineering.illinois.edu/ .
- Build a community: This was one of the first professional conferences I have attended where I knew a decent amount of people by face and name. It was a small setting that allowed me to reconnect with these people and actually build on friendships!
- Diverse Role Models: weSTEM was awesome because I got to listen and learn from successful women and men who are dedicated to improving the atmosphere for women in STEM.
- Shorter can be better: conferences often span several days and can feel drawn out. weSTEM was in total about 24 hours packed full of talks and networking. This left me feeling inspired and motivated but not exhausted!
- Keep it honest: My favorite talks from the conference were from women who didn't gloss over road bumps in their past but highlighted them. It made them more relatable and memorable. Shout out to Tamara McCleary, Jeanita Pritchett and Dominique Carter for personally inspiring me!
- Thank your organizers: I have never attended such a well run student organized conference. It was amazing to see what students can do with great direction and leadership. Thank you to GradSWE at UIUC for such a great conference!
If you're curious about the conference please see this link https://www.westem.engineering.illinois.edu/ .
