Newark...?!?

So we all met up at the airport two hours before our flight was supposed to depart... only to find out that our flight has been delayed and they changed our itinerary and we were now flying to Newark instead of Chicago, where we would be transferring to another plane to get to Denver. Wait.......Where the hell is Newark...?!?


Good question. That's exactly what went through all our minds when we realized that the woman behind the desk said "Newark" instead of "New York". What a disappointment...

Annnd about 6 hours later, and lots of running around big airports, we're finally in Denver, Colorado. We'll be off to Keystone tomorrow morning to start our Hopper assignments!

I can't believe we're finally in Colorado

After so much planning for this conference, like getting funding, applying for scholarships, applying to be Hoppers (a volunteer position during the conference), registering, submitting our resumes, and so on.... we're finally in Denver! So far, we had a few issues with delayed flights and Natalia got questioned at the airport which caused her to almost miss her flight (literally by a few seconds). But other than that, I'm excited to see what this week brings.

Gearing Up For Grace Hopper

After some trial and tribulation, the executive members of CU-WISE have finally made it to Denver, Colorado for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (you can read my detailed account of the actual trip on my personal blog). We're staying near the airport tonight, but we're heading to Keystone first thing tomorrow morning.

We were all accepted as volunteers, called "Hoppers," which means we have special duties to help the conference out in exchange for free registration. Most of us are doing bag stuffing tomorrow and then various duties like greeting or manning the Internet Cafe the day after. I think this should be a wonderful way to meet new people right away and learn about the conference before it actually begins on Wednesday.

I'm super excited about being here. I've been wanting to go to this conference since my trip to Google in May when I first heard about it. It's amazing that we were able to find the funding and support that we got, and I hope we'll bring back a lot of great information and advice to benefit our CU-WISE members, and help us reach out to younger women.

We're on our way to GHC'08

After changing our itinerary, staying one hour in the plane waiting to take off and a headache, we're spending the night in Denver and tomorrow we'll take the shuttle to Keystone Resort, go the GHC '08 conference: http://gracehopper.org/2008/ .
The only thing I can say now is that this experience will be unique: I'm travelling with other 3 girls (Barb, Gail and Serena, executives of CU-WISE) and I expect 98% of women in this conference, as oposed to 10-20% which I normally see.
I'm really excited and I know that all the troubles we went through to get funding and work in advance will be worth it.

Ready, set, go!

The CU-WISE blog has been launched.

Welcome to our new blog!

I've been getting very excited about setting up our very own CU-WISE blog, and am very pleased that it has now been launched. All executive members of CU-WISE will be contributing news and information to this space. We hope to tell you about how the group is progressing toward fulfilling the mission and vision, what kinds of events we have hosted and will be hosting, and other interesting and relevant tidbits from around the net. So be sure to subscribe to the feed and enjoy the ride!