The Grace Hopper Celebration: A Conference Not to Miss!

The Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) of Women in Computing is the world's largest conference gathering of women technologists. If you are in computing, you definitely need to attend this conference at least once in your life! 

Last year, we were six Carleton students to attend GHC in Phoenix, AZ. It was epic! You can read about last year's conference here:

• Ramblings of an Ordinary Girl by Kristyn Girard
• The Female Perspective of Computer Science by Gail Carmichael
• That Eng Girl by Daniella Niyonkuru
• Out of the Box: Getting Involved Beyond The Classroom by Daphne Ong

The Grace Hopper Celebration features multiple tracks including invited technical speakers, academic, industry, student, and career tracks. Keynote speakers are usually well known leading women in tech (e.g. Sheryl Sandberg, Maria Klawe, Mary Lou Jepsen, Arati Prabhakar) who are greatly inspiring. There are also sessions for students (undergraduate and graduate) and mentoring opportunities. You get to hear from women who went through the same path and also advise younger ones. It is an awesome networking occasion. Plus, if you are interested in getting a job, GHC has a career fair with great companies, and instant interviews possibilities.

The 2015 edition, themed "Our Time To Lead", will be held in Houston, Texas. If you have been reading our newsletter lately, you probably know that applications for GHC Scholarship Grants will be opened until April 15. For more information, read here. I highly recommend you to submit an application if you would like to attend GHC this year. This post is full of good tips about applying to opportunities for women in STEM (Feel free to send me an email as well). And, stay tuned for upcoming GHC info sessions! It is our time to lead!

Stay great! 

Daniella

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Daniella is a Master's student in Electrical and Computer Engineering. One of her dreams is to inspire more women to embrace STEM careers and unleash their full potential. Although she is hardworking and can be very serious, she enjoys comedy and dancing, has a big sense of humour, and believes that a little kindness goes a long way!

@niyodanie

Remembering - 25 Years After the Montreal Massacre

One day, fourteen lives lost.

If you have walked through the University Centre at some point this week, you may have seen the names of 14 different women as you climbed the stairs to the atrium. You may also have seen their pictures and names on the wall; you may even have stopped to read a little about who they were.

Those blurry photographs show the faces of the 14 women killed in the Montreal Massacre twenty-five years ago. On December 6, 1989, Marc Lépine shot and killed thirteen female students and one female faculty member at École Polytechnique de Montreal, home to Canada’s largest engineering program. In the engineering classroom where his rampage started, Lépine separated the men from the women and declared that he hated feminists before he shot nine female students, six of whom were killed. In forty-five minutes, Lépine covered three floors, and entered several classrooms. In addition to the women killed, thirteen people were injured before Lépine took his own life. This event sparked outrage and a national debate about gun control and violence against women.

In the 2000 block of the Mackenzie Building, there is a bulletin memorial dedicated to remembering the Massacre. I had seen it many times coming down the stairs after tutorials, but I have to be honest and say that I hadn't given the event itself much thought. I felt that it was a horrific and tragic act, but I knew essentially nothing about the particulars of the event itself. This year, I decided to learn more about it and I was surprised by how much I was affected by what I learned. I couldn't help but associate myself with those women. They were female engineering students. I am a female engineering student. I really could not wrap my head around such a thing happening.

There are many events on campus dedicated to remembering the fourteen women who had their lives cut short, and to honoring the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women (Dec. 6). On Tuesday of this week, a commemorative gathering was held by the Faculty of Engineering. On Thursday December 4, the Womyn’s Centre will be holding a candle light vigil in the Minto/Mackenzie quad (4:30pm), after which they will be showing the film “Polytechnique,” a documentary about the Massacre, at BECAMPS. On Saturday December 6, there will be a community gathering in Minto Park (Elgin and Gilmour) to honor the women killed. The Womyn Centre will have a table on the 3rd floor of the University Centre throughout the week providing information about the commemorative events, the Montreal Massacre itself, and the women who lost their lives as a result.

If you can, I would highly recommend that you take a moment to research a little about the Montreal Massacre or the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. These are not pleasant things to think about, but they are important nevertheless.

This post is dedicated to the women who lost their lives so tragically twenty-five years ago, to women who have suffered violence because of their gender, and to those working to end violence against women everywhere.

- Lauren

The Montreal Massacre victims:

Anne St-Arneault, 23; Geneviève Bergeron, 21; Hélène Colgan, 23; Nathalie Croteau, 23; Barbara Daigneault, 22; Anne-Marie Edward, 21; Maud Haviernick, 29; Barbara Klueznick, 31; Maryse Laganière, 25; Maryse Leclair, 23; Anne-Marie Lemay, 22; Sonia Pelletier, 23; Michèle Richard, 21; and Annie Turcotte, 21.

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Lauren is a second year Architectural Conservation and Sustainability Engineering student. (Quite the title, she knows.) She is a big fan of good food, good friends and good conversation. Her collection of scarves and tea is matched only by the list of places she wants to visit and books she wants to read. She loves ballroom and Latin dancing, and can often be found dancing in the atrium or wherever salsa music is played. She is passionate about improving the lives of women and girls around the world and about encouraging girls to pursue studies and careers in STEM.



The Path of Science and Engineering!

When I was a kid, I was in Girl Guides. One unforgettable thing I learned at Girl Guide camp when I was ten was a lesson from my leader about why we stay on the path during a hike. She told us that it only takes ten people to walk on a patch of the forest before the foliage there starts to thin out. Now, my leader meant this in a forest-conservation kind of way; but a recent experience  made me think of this lesson in a whole new light...

During my reading week this fall, I volunteered with the Carleton Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) at a career convention for eighth graders in the city. The convention was meant to give these students an opportunity to learn about different career paths and meet professionals in these fields. At this convention, I was manning (ironic word choice, I know) an info table on EWB with another girl from our Carleton Chapter. Our table happened to be located next to one on masonry, which had an interactive area where students could try their hand at building part of a wall with some bricks and mortar. The girl I was with is an engineering student, but she always loved the trades and working with her hands. She enthusiastically went over to the next table and joined the brick-laying lesson. What happened next made me smile! The masonry booth had been occupied mostly by groups of boys all day. But, as my fellow EWBer scraped around mortar and laid bricks, a few eighth grade girls came over and joined her, and then a few more. These girls seemed much less timid and self-conscious, and more engaged in the lesson than any of the previous solitary girls who had tried the booth earlier that day. All it took was one other girl there, one other person like them to make the girls realize that they could do masonry too, that working with your hands isn't just for boys!

I know masonry isn't STEM, but the trades are male-dominated fields, just like Science and Engineering. And here is where the forest lesson comes in: Each one of you, a woman in Science and Engineering, can play the same role for young women interested in STEM as my EWBer friend! You would be taking a step off the path into the forest and treading into the foliage! With every woman who does what she loves and pursues a career in STEM, the foliage thins out just a little bit more. With time, the new path becomes easier to find and follow for the next girl. You are one more female face in an engineering class that stops the next girl from thinking "I'm not a boy. I don't belong here". You are the successful older student or prominent figure in your field that reminds those girls in the initial struggles of Science and Engineering that "I can do this!"

     

 In my Psychology class last year, I learned about how stereotype threat (the fear that if you fail, other people will say you failed because you are part of some minority or social group) can actually make people perform worse and fail more often. It has been said for years that women are not as smart as men and worse at math. This is not true, of course, but it can still trigger stereotype threat in girls and women in STEM; they worry that their failure will be attributed to them being a "dumb girl". Yet, every example they have that contradicts the stereotype, makes the stereotype threat diminish more and more. Every one of you is making that girl less and less afraid of being herself, and less scared of failing.

That's part of the reason I love Science! It lets me be a role model and encourage tones of young girls to pursue their love for STEM. And this is simply achieved by doing what I love and find SO interesting.

So stay inspiring ladies and keep treading that widening path through the forest!!!

-Sarah

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Sarah is in her second year of Neuroscience combined honors at Carleton. She loves introducing young minds to the mind-blowing amazingness of science and encouraging girls and women to be whatever they want to be.

Hai! Welcome Back!!!

Darlings!

You’re about three weeks in, but welcome back nonetheless.

Whether this is your first year at Carleton or 10^th (no judgment here). We hope that you have a productive yet fun year!

Since I have been here FOREVER, I've complied a list of tips and tricks of the trade (yes I equated being a student to a trade).

1)   Read your course syllabus… Seriously. All the important information is on there and it acts a contract between you and your professor.

2)   Use your TA’s, they’re job is to make sure you are feeling comfortable with the material.

3)   Use your Prof’s office hours. Again, get comfortable asking questions.

4)   Attend class. I know this seems like a no brainer and granted some classes are bruuutaal. Try really hard to show up. Make an effort. I know this goes without saying, but you guys are paying $500+ per course… Seems like a complete waste if you’re not coming to class or using the Prof and TA’s

5)   Keep up with the material. You don’t need to be making an appearance at a house party every night of the week. You do need to make an appearance at the library or an equivalent place to get your shit done.

6)   Don’t compare yourself with anyone. We all know those students….The ones that party all night, don’t show up to class  (or show up only to fall asleep), that start their assignments 1 hr before they are due, and that seem to never open a text book YET the buggers end up with a fantastic mark…

They are not you. Recognize and appreciate how YOU learn. The earlier you do this the less heart ache and potential awful marks you will experience.

7)   Join at least one “social” group (salsa anyone?) and one “academic” group (every department has a society, get involved).

Shameless self plug here, but ahem CU-WISE is both social (who doesn't love cupcake socials and movie nights?) AND  academic (we have smart people come in to talk about smart things) .

                                      We also are changing the world, seriously.

Our outreach efforts over the last 2 years alone has reached more then 600 girls ranging from ages 10 to 18...   #NBD ;)

Our members are the absolute best (not biased at all) and our events are AH-MAZING (again, cupcakes, roller coasters and nonstop giggling, can’t be beat).

8)   Expand your social horizons, get to know people that are your opposites... Makes for fun evenings

9)   Pack food. Campus food is …well... you know...(unless you go to Roosters… They’re all right for certain things). But seriously, pack food or buy granola bars and stuff them in your locker. Nothing is worse then setting down to study and being hungry. It’s cruel and unusual punishment.

10)  Workout. I know I knooooow. “Sweating is sooo awful” (this is the exact statement that my lazy labmate tells me when we workout... but he’s has a lot of issues we need to sort out) Anyway. Find a physical activity you enjoy, tennis, swimming, weights, running (barf), yoga etc. Get moving. No one wants to be out of breath climbing the Uni Center stairs ;)

I hope I see you folks at our upcoming events!!

As always,

Stay fabulous,

Rim

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Rim is an institution within Carleton (that is to say she has been here for so long that there has been talk to erect a statue in her honour).  Word on the street is that she’s “finishing up” her PhD in Neuroscience (don’t ever get her started on her research, she’s turns into a 12 y/old on a sugar high..it’s terrifying. No one should be that excited about science). She also happens to be the Science Co-Chair CU-WISE (or as she calls it THE BOSS OF ALL THINGS), where she spends her time hustling , planning events, motivating (coughharrasingcough) students and flirting with her Engineering Co-Chair. You will see her around campus (she lives here) please stop her and say hello. She responds well to cookies.

Celebrate Yourself - A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform!

International Women’s Day is celebrated all over the world on March 8th. This year, the official theme is “Inspiring Change”. March is also the National Engineering Month and the theme of National Engineering Month Ontario 2014 is ‘Make a World of Difference’! [I bet you guessed where I’m going with this! And yes, I’m very excited about being a woman AND in engineering!]

I absolutely love that there is a day dedicated to women, and I couldn't help but write a post. As women, we can make a world of difference by inspiring change for more women in science, engineering, and technology. Every time, I hear girls afraid to embrace STEM careers because they might not be good at it [See myths about girls and science], or because it’s a man’s world [but again as the song says “it would be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl”], my heart breaks a little. It’s important to close the STEM gender gap [Check out why here]. Here are few 'natural' reasons that show that women have what it takes:

• Diane MarieChild once said that “A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform”. This is not only valid in the “Carrying babies” context. It also applies to a plethora of domains. Engineering is about creating, designing, transforming what was before into greater things for the humanity welfare. So, ladies … Engineering might turn out to be more natural to us than we think.
• Engineering is about using scientific knowledge to solve problems. I find it fantastic to solve problems on a regular basis in a way that might change people's lives [It’s almost like being a superhero]. Again, women also have problem solving skills and love to help others.
• Women’s brains do not freeze when they encounter equations or complex mathematical tables and formulas. Here are graphs that refute the idea that women are bad at Math.
• I could go on and on with arguments but today is about celebrating Women in Science and Engineering! 

Why is it essential to do so? Because as Women in Science and Engineering, we are going against the stereotypes. We are also the ones responsible of changing implicit biases [Read Natalie’s blog post and this chapter]. Recent studies indicate that people don’t think implicitly of females being associated with STEM related careers when compared to other careers such as teacher, secretary, etc. These unconscious beliefs or implicit biases may be more powerful than explicitly held beliefs and values simply because we are not aware of them. We need to remind ourselves [yes, sometimes we hold ourselves back!] and the society that women have a lot to offer and their potential can't be reduced to just sitting and being pretty. As Nancy Rathburn said “A strong woman understands that the gifts such as logic, decisiveness, and strength are just as feminine as intuition and emotional connection. She values and uses all of her gifts.”

CU-WISE is celebrating you!

Being present, leaning in and talking about our experiences as Women in STEM are ways to change these biases and have more girls embrace STEM! We are creating, nurturing and transforming the image of Women in STEM.
So Celebrate Yourself!!! You are inspiring change and making a world of difference!

Stay great,

Daniella

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Daniella is a Master's student in Electrical and Computer Engineering. One of her dreams is to inspire more women to embrace STEM careers and unleash their full potential. Although she is hardworking and can be very serious, she enjoys comedy and dancing, has a big sense of humour, and believes that a little kindness goes a long way!