SIU hosted the first annual Women's Leadership Conference in Carbondale.
It was a day filled with guest speakers, discussion panels and break out sessions geared for women in traditionally male dominated fields.
“We see in all of you an amazing future for women in leadership.”
Dr. Melinda Yoemans, Coordinator of the women’s resource center, welcomed over 200 graduate, undergraduate and high school women to the the Women’s Leadership Conference
“Were covering a lot of different aspects of women’s professional development, women’s leadership and just good leadership in general.”
The target participants are women in the STEM fields, or science, technology, engineering, mathematics, as well as business, and agriculture.
In the past these fields were thought to be predominately held by men, but the organizers want to encourage women to “reach for the stars” in their career.
“And also to kind of change some of that cultural inheritance that says that we should sit at the side of the table or we should be getting coffee instead of sitting at the table with great male leaders.” explained Dr. Yoemans.
Undergraduate Samantha McGrath, from Ottawa saw this as a great way to network and learn from professionals.
“I just came here to just kind of meet new women and try to become more well rounded “
The women had their choice of 16 different presentations on a variety of topics to teach women to be proactive in their careers.
“A lot of it’s very engaged and engaging the students to come up with, recognize and realize their own aspirations and ideas about what is great leadership.”
NASA engineer Mallory Johnston, served as the keynote speaker.
She says that conferences like this will give women the confidence they need to be successful.
“It plants the seed there aren’t just natural born leaders, but that it is a skill set, that it is another tool in your tool box.
The conference was free to attend and presented by the women’s resource center, the society of women engineers and many other colleges and other service organizations.
For a more in depth look at the conference click here.
