Thursday, October 8, 2015

Less Than 2 Weeks Left to Register for The Women in STEM Summit!

Less than two weeks left to register!

Recruit Women in STEM and Drive Diversity in Your Firm

IIR's Women in STEM Summit, taking place October 22nd at Bentley University in Boston, MA brings together students from leading colleges pursuing STEM coursework, professionals in STEM fields, and representatives from top companies looking to increase their STEM firepower. Learn more here:

Join us for a day of learning, networking, and collaboration around talent acquisition and career development for women in STEM.
·         Change the makeup of your current corporate culture and incorporate more diversity
·         Learn from case studies in smart STEM investment and feed the pipeline of STEM talent
·         Facilitate job creation and innovation with data driven research
·         Improve recruitment, retention and motivation with a curated group of case studies
·         Make one-on-one connections between local female college students and women executives in STEM professions
·         Attend with your team for leadership development, employee education, and retention tools

Learn how you can drive diversity in your firm:

Download the brochure for full program details: http://bit.ly/1jcybCh

As a valued reader of our blog, you get an exclusive $100 off when you use code WISBL to register: http://bit.ly/1jcybCh

PLUS! Engage with the motivators and influencers helping to change the future of STEM in the workplace while positioning your company as a leader in diversity in STEM. For sponsorship and exhibiting opportunities, contact Barbara Shapiro at BShapiro@iirusa.com or 646.895.7485.

We hope to see you in Boston!

Cheers,
The Women in STEM Summit Team
@WISSummit
#WomeninSTEM
Steamacceleratorblog.iirusa.com


Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Meet College Students Who Are Looking for STEM Careers

Make one-on-one connections with local female college students looking for a STEM career at IIR’s Women in STEM Summit, taking place October 22nd at Bentley University in MA. The event brings together students from leading colleges pursuing STEM coursework looking for companies like yours to find a career!



Through our exclusive STEMexchange, companies have the opportunity to make short presentations about their corporate culture, D&I programs, open STEM positions and make a case for why they are a great place to work. Students attending are eager to meet with company employees, ask questions and share their thoughts on the ideal corporate environment. These exchanges are designed to help students evaluate career options and assist companies in identifying local emerging talents for mentoring, internship and recruitment programs.

Register now to meet with college student looking for STEM careers, and contact Krista Lentini at klentini@iirusa.com to be a presenting company at the STEMexchange.

Join students expected from the following colleges and universities:

·         Bentley University
·         Clark University
·         Curry College
·         Eastern Nazarene College
·         Emmanuel College
·         Framingham State University
·         Mount Wachusett Community College
·         Northeastern University Center for STEM Education
·         Rensselaer
·         Suffolk University Boston
·         Stonehill College
·         Tufts Career Center

As a valued reader of our blog, you get an exclusive $100 off the current rate when you used code WISBL at registration: http://bit.ly/1F2y9qV


PLUS! Engage with the motivators and influencers helping to change the future of STEM in the workplace while positioning your company as a leader in diversity in STEM. For sponsorship opportunities, contact Barbara Shapiro at BShapiro@iirusa.com or 646.895.7485.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Talking STEM: Patty Hatter, Intel

IBC Life Sciences’ CEO Debra Chipman recently sat down with Patty Hatter, VP and GM of Intel Security and Software IT & CIO of Intel Security Group, to discuss why it is important to broaden the diversity of the STEM workforce, among much more about women in STEM.

Today, Patty is responsible for innovating and executing a sustainable transformation of Intel Security’s operational processes and infrastructure across the global organization. As CIO, Hatter is responsible for driving cross-functional partnerships to accelerate delivery of strategic business priorities that impact bottom line profitability. Focused on driving world-class operational effectiveness and scalability, Hatter leads all facets of Intel Security’s ongoing transactional business and shared services, as well as IT, risk and compliance, and M&A integration.



Here’s what Patty had to share with us:

Debra Chipman: Why is it important to your organization to broaden the diversity of the STEM workforce?

Patty Hatter: Well, it gets exactly to what we were talking about that the technologies are moving so quickly, the demands are increasing so much that we need everybody rowing in this boat. Everybody from every ethnic community – male, female, any geography. It can’t just be one type of person. There are so many needs from a societal point of view, from a corporate point of view. We need to open it up to anyone who has the aptitude and interest to go into this because the demand --- it’s here already. To what we were just talking about, I feel it out here in Silicon Valley of there are so many opportunities and relatively few people given the growth and we could use all the new talent we could get out there right now. That’s just in one area of the country around the world.

Debra: The follow-up question to that, which is a little bit off the script, is you mentioned interest and aptitude. Is it that a lot of people have the aptitude and there is something we could do to change the interest, maybe?

Patty: You know, you could be really good at something, but if you don’t like it --- and this applies to STEM, sports, art, probably anything. (Laugh). You could be very good at something, but if you don’t find it interesting, you are not going to be able to pursue it or have the interest or the passion or the drive to pursue it as part of your career. There is so much good you could do every day and if you’re going to work and you don’t enjoy what you’re doing and you don’t feel a connection to that, I think you would go in a different direction.

It’s how to get people excited about something that they can see themselves growing in that area early enough because what we were just talking about with kids and how the school systems work and everyone trying to get good grades. If you don’t feel like you can be good at something, you probably self-select out of something really quickly just in the education level, let alone in the workforce.

Debra: That’s a shame.

Patty: It’s easier for females to self-select out than probably males and it just tends to make the problem linger year after year after year.

Debra: That leads into the next question I have. What do you see as the biggest obstacle to career advancement to women who work in STEM? How can you – or us as information providers – help them overcome these?

Patty: It comes up in a lot of discussions I have and certainly I’ve seen it in the females I’ve mentored and worked with over the years. I find females are harder on themselves than males. There is more of a tendency to --- if there is a new job opportunity, a female will --- now this isn’t 100%, but more the norm than the exception. Females will look at the 10 traits needed for that role and will say: “Oh, I only have nine or I only have eight, so I need to go and do this other training or get this other degree and then I’ll be ready for that” whereas the guy will look at the 10 traits needed and if he had one – again, not 100% – but he’ll say: “Good. I’m in.”

A lot of women can be very task-oriented; drive from one thing to another and not look up and see the bigger picture and in a lot of cases not give themselves a break to say: “Hey, I’m very good at eight. Yeah, I don’t have those two, but I know I can learn that, so let me try. And here’s why I’m great at those other eight items.” It’s something we need to get past and talking about it is a way, I think, for females in STEM to acknowledge “Hey, I might have that tendency, too, so I need to compensate for it. I need to be conscious of that and not let myself fall into that trap.” If I had a dollar for every time I was speaking at a diversity event or a women’s event and I would hear women say: “I wasn’t quite right for that, so I didn’t even try”, I would have a million dollars. It comes up all the time and it’s seeing the glass half empty instead of half full.

I really do encourage --- I’ve been very lucky and I think this is why I am the way I am that --- you know, I had some opportunities very early in my career that I probably, in hindsight, if somebody would have told my boss “Are you kidding? Why are you asking Patty to do this?” Move to Europe when you’ve never even been on a business trip to Europe. Start a business that nobody has ever started before. He thought I could, I figured I could, so I didn’t worry. I worried --- well, I didn’t really worry about anything. I just figured I’m confident enough that I will figure out what I need to when I get there and work through it and if I had stopped too much to think about it, I would have thought of the 1000 reasons of why not to take those opportunities as opposed to “This is going to be a great learning experience. No matter what happens, I’m going to take it and go.”

Debra: It’s something I often identify in people. I say: “You have to have blind ambition so that you don’t get caught in all the traps along the way. You’ll just get so bogged down that you’ll never get anywhere.” I know there are times when I look back in my career and I almost self-selected out. It’s “There for the grace of God go I.” So, I’m fortunate that I was able not to do that.

Patty: It’s really looking at “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Debra: You’re not going to end up dead, which would be the worst.  So, forge ahead.

Patty: Right. You have a strategy and you need to modify it. Well, that’s not terrifying. (Laugh).

Debra: It’s not going to cost me too much to experience that. So, how do you think companies and individuals like yourself can maximize the impact of women who are currently in STEM jobs to continue to grow these numbers?

Patty: Well, it’s interesting because I’ve been at a number of different companies and a lot of larger companies have female support networks and different diversity support networks across the organization so that I have to say I was never sure how much those were helping or how much people were leveraging them. But, it was interesting because we had started with McAfee a couple of years ago at a – we called it: “Wise Women in Security Affinity Group” – and I was curious --- it was a good thing to do, but how many people are going to come? How many females are going to get engaged? Is it really going to be meaningful work for their time to participate in these?

A lot of folks hadn’t been in other, larger companies that had these sorts of affinity groups. I was wildly impressed and pleased to see how much people got out of those conversations. You could tell it was a --- folks had a sense of “I must be the only one having these feelings. I’m not talking to anybody else about them. I must be the only one who feels a little bit unsure or hesitant to try or I’m not quite sure how to network. I hear people say that, but what does it really mean?” It was great to see that take off from nothing because every other company that I had been at, it was already started by the time I got there. So, it was hard to tell where the beginning and end was and what the delta really was. We could – from the experience we had from nothing going to these affinity groups in all of our big locations – you could really see how meaningful it was for the employees who were getting engaged because there really was a sense that other people were feeling this and other people were talking about it and there are these other ideas that women had on questions that I had in my mind, too and “This is really useful to me.”

So, for companies that don’t have that, I would encourage people to take the leadership in their organizations to get something started. And for companies that do have it, how can you change it up? How can you refresh it? How can you get more people engaged just so you can keep the freshness of thoughts going on?

Debra: Those have been great ideas. I wonder how many companies actually end up doing that. I think it’s probably fewer than we think.

Patty: I think it is. The large companies in most cases – large American-based companies, in most cases – have something like that. But that is relative to the total number of corporations. It is going to be a relatively small number. But, I would encourage even mid-sized companies because you could really see the impact and the participation and the engagement and the enthusiasm that it brought to the individuals. Also, how it made them feel about the company overall. “Hey, the company cares about me enough and some of the issues or questions or gnawing concerns I have to pull something like this together.” So, there was a positive benefit for the individual themselves, as well as the company overall.

Debra: Along those lines, having those groups in place must help as you integrate incoming women or all college students into the company. Can you elaborate on your experience doing that and what you think is the best way to integrate them in?

Patty: What to do with the college students. That’s a good millennial (question) overall. I would say the one thing that I would encourage organizations is not to leave them by themselves. They really seek an affinity group amongst themselves. Not just from a female point of view, but others of the same age. I’ve seen some examples where we’d love to have this to do over again where there was the idea of “Well, we’ll put this recent college grad in with all these very experienced, many-years-out-in-the-corporate-world folks and what a great learning they’ll have.” Meanwhile, the recent college grad is thinking “I have nothing in common with these people.” It doesn’t help build the bond between themselves and their co-workers and the recent college grad and the company.

So, as you are integrating recent college grads in a large organization, I think you have to look at not just the male/female affinity groups and the connection there, but also an age dynamic. And that would vary a lot by company and the seniority and profile of people in the organization. But they really want to connect with others with like experiences and organizations seem to be pretty mindful of that if they have a very age-diverse population.

Debra: I love the idea of the affinity groups. How can colleges – on the flipside – better prepare the students for jobs in STEM fields?

Patty: The one thing that I’ve started to see is colleges getting more curriculums around how to bring multiple disciplines together. How do you relate to it? How do you form teams? How do those teams form solutions that actually execute on something? It’s great to have individual book knowledge in your particular topic. That’s great and that is one way to learn, but that’s not how things work in the working world. Nobody is giving you tests on one subject. You have a business problem or a technology problem that you’re trying to solve and you can probably better solve it with multiple skills, very diverse skills coming to the table. I think the more colleges are able to help students work through how to manage those dynamics and how to participate in those teams – because sometimes you’re a participant and other times you are more in a position of leading those teams – and helping people start to work through that process in school so they have more of a base to start from once they get out into the working world. I think that would be very important.

I think it also helps the notion of “diversity is good”. Diversity of ideas, diversity of people is good because you are starting to experience that just from a subject matter expertise in schools that have that kind of curriculum that they are building. I think that gets people a little farther down the path of appreciating that diverse skill sets and diverse ideas and diverse individuals help the team, not hurt the team.

Debra: I’ve seen some kids get very focused on just what they know to pass the test and they get into the work world and no one asks them what they know. (Laugh).

Patty: Not just a calculus question. (Laugh).

Debra: It can be quite frightening.

Patty: It sounds so obvious in hindsight.

Debra: (Sigh). I know.

Patty: The programs are built in a certain way and there is always a bit of a sense of “This is what I had to do when I went to school, so the kids should have ---“

Debra: Yeah, why should they have it any easier? Yeah.

Patty: “This is the way I had to do it.” That many all-nighters, and that many tests, etc.

Debra: Or it would be great if there was a way --- one of the things we’re looking at is taking STEM and turning it into “STEAM” and adding “Art” because art overlies in a lot of STEM areas. You know, architecture, engineering. You have to have an art sense to create some of these things. But, it also plays into getting people outside of that “bookish” thing because art is experiential. It is something that you do to express yourself or create different things. It’s a good thing to overlay onto everyone. You mentioned the arts before.

So, where do you see the state of STEM in five or even ten years from now?

Patty: Well, I hope we are not seeing it as --- I hope we are not sitting here and seeing the same gap that we see now. I have to say, I find it very perplexing how there are fewer females in engineering school now than when I was in engineering school. I think back and there were not a lot of females in engineering when myself and my friends went through school, but I have to say my role model going to getting my undergrad and graduate degree in engineering was my dad. So, I just think my role model has to be a female. Although my mother – who was not an engineer – could have outdone myself and my dad combined. She was the brilliant engineer of the family and the only one without an engineering degree.

I think we need to open up how we draw connections and how we relate people and how do folks consider themselves role models because I didn’t think it was weird that there weren’t other females that I saw that weren’t engineers because I saw my dad.

Debra: Well, to you, you were gender blind. It didn’t matter. It was just “I want to be an engineer and I’m a woman, who cares? I want to be an engineer and that’s enough.”

Patty: Right. Right. To what we were talking about at the beginning, how do we make this – if you are interested and you have the capabilities – how do we get anybody/everybody to the table at a common level? I think there is something to that because in a lot of the role model conversations that you hear now – and I understand why. You hear people talk about wanting to get role models who are exactly like the people we are trying to put there. Same sex or same geography that they come from and I think we are just going to be in the same situation that we are now just ten years down the road, which isn’t what we need. So, how do we build as inclusive an environment as possible so that people can see themselves in whoever the role model is because the role model should be somebody who is role modeling behaviors and intelligence and perseverance and talent, not necessarily just role modeling “I’m male” and “I’m female.”

Debra: “I’m male and I’m good at math, therefore I can be this.” Yeah.

Patty: Get the feeling that it is open to anybody; anybody can do that because taking it back to my situation, that’s what I felt. So, it really didn’t bother me one way or another that I didn’t have female engineer --- females that I saw who were engineers when I went to engineering school because I still internalized with the role model who was my dad. It didn’t matter that he was a guy and I’m a girl. It’s just that he could do it, so I could do it.

Debra: I know that when I was going to college --- and it was very different just applying to college back then. But, I don’t think there was this emphasis on “Oh, they take 45% female or 54% male.” This whole thing where everybody is categorized and put into a “You are likely to do this because of your aptitude or your testing or whatever”. It just makes it so much harder to get out of what it is you’ve been programmed to be. All the way through.

Patty: Right.

Debra: They start programming you in grade 3 and you can’t break out of the barrier, even if you are really talented because they don’t let you. And then if companies are looking for the same, you are fighting two sides of a losing battle.

Patty: Right. So, I think going forward – to your question – going forward is more the --- and maybe this seems weird, but it’s trying to be inclusive, too.

Debra: I think you’re right what you said before. It’s not necessarily just women in STEM. It’s about women, it’s about minorities. It’s about anybody who is qualified – whether you fit the profile or not – because we are going to run out of people.

Patty: Right.

Debra: If the “Guide 80” is right and if you look at the stats, I think some of the stats I’ve seen are that 59% of the college degrees go to women, but only 12% are in STEM. That’s frightening. Because that’s a losing battle that we’ll never come back from if we can’t switch that out. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. It’s been fun sharing our thoughts across this issue.

Want to hear more on this topic? Attend The Women in STEM Summit October 22, 2015 in at Bentley University. THE WOMEN IN STEM SUMMIT offers a plan for short term action and long term progress by addressing the shortage of women in STEM degrees and careers. The Summit brings together companies struggling to fill their STEM job pipelines with female college students pursuing STEM degrees. It is designed to facilitate closing the gap between corporate needs for a STEM-enabled workforce and student questions about job prospects that align their passion with the needs of corporate America. For more information about The Women in STEM Summit or to register, click here: http://bit.ly/1Y3phay


Thursday, September 10, 2015

My Story/My Advice: Dharti Pancholi

This My Story/My Advice post features Dharti Pancholi, Principal Process Engineer at NNE Pharmaplan. The My Story/My Advice project, brought to you by The Women in STEM Summit, which highlights women in STEM that are persisting in STEM fields and making a difference. It also gives their personal advice to the next generation of young women looking for encouragement to persist in STEM.



Dharti’s Story:

I pursued Master's in Chemical Engineering with emphasis in Biotechnology. With my father being a Chief Medical Officer/Doctor and my mother being Masters in Math/Commerce, having good science and math foundation has been the focus from my very supportive family. As a child, I could never decide whether I wanted to go into medicine or engineering. Biotech emphasis in Chemical Engineering is great because I still uses math concepts in process engineering - design and calculations and work in biotech-pharma industries that I am helping make drugs/medicines to help human beings in the world. Working with several small/private as well as large/public companies and user side (product making) or service side (consulting/engineering service provider) companies, I discovered my passion lies in people management/mentoring, technical leadership, as well as business development aspects. I remember the time in 1996-1998 when there were not many women engineers on operational plant, and now the opportunities are endless choosing STEM career path.

Dharti’s Advice:

As mentioned in several books, female and male minds work differently and differences are not yet fully understood! Women are often more cooperative or flexible to give up their needs for others, or unlike men, they put more emphasis on understanding/questioning, mutuality, empathy etc., which sometimes makes others take advantage of them. Nevertheless, fewer women held executive positions in corporate world, but they are more effective at the mid-level management positions, or often they end up starting their own company to avoid political conflicts with differences in leadership styles, values, and preference. I personally think that embracing the differences between men and women and understanding diversity can make an even stronger team, filling in for each other's gaps. My advice is that female leaders must be role models themselves to encourage others, particularly women, and develop their interest in STEM.


Register for the upcoming Women in STEM Summit taking place October 22, 2015 in Boston, MA. The event brings together companies struggling to fill their STEM job pipelines with female college students pursuing STEM degrees. The summit is designed to facilitate closing the gap between corporate needs for a STEM-enabled workforce and student questions about job prospects that align their passion with the needs of corporate America. For more information or to register, click here: http://bit.ly/1EY6Z4d

Thursday, September 3, 2015

My Story/My Advice: Linda Graf

This My Story/My Advice post features Linda Graf, retired Engineer and Scientist at Pfizer. The My Story/My Advice project, brought to you by The Women in STEM Summit, which highlights women in STEM that are persisting in STEM fields and making a difference. It also gives their personal advice to the next generation of young women looking for encouragement to persist in STEM.


Linda’s Story:

I am a retired engineer and scientist. I worked over 41 years in the field, because I loved it and thought it was fun. I started out as a premed student but when that failed I went into chemistry and never looked back. From there, my fun led me to chemical engineering and then into management. I always wanted to write a book about what woman in the field were subjected to, including me, and how I was able to combat the remarks and isolation to retire happily. My book just got published and is titled "To Caroline- Love, Auntie". It is the story of a little girl named Caroline whose career options are unlimited because of the women who fought for the right to work in the male-predominant fields of science and engineering.

Linda’s Advice:

Don't ever let anyone discourage you from what you want to do. You will be great at whatever you choose if it comes from the heart.


Register for the upcoming Women in STEM Summit taking place October 22, 2015 in Boston, MA. The event brings together companies struggling to fill their STEM job pipelines with female college students pursuing STEM degrees. The summit is designed to facilitate closing the gap between corporate needs for a STEM-enabled workforce and student questions about job prospects that align their passion with the needs of corporate America. For more information or to register, click here: http://bit.ly/1hZFME2

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Just Announced! Women in STEM Summit Speakers

At the Women in STEM Summit, taking place October 22 at Bentley University, you will have the opportunity to make one-to-one connections with potential employees, feed the pipelines for your mentoring and internship programs, maximize ROI of STEM investments, increase STEM retention rates, as well as promote your internal initiatives in support of women in the workplace.

Women in STEM Summit
October 22, 2015
Boston, MA

We are excited to introduce the major players, influencers and inspirers in the Northeast that have joined our speaking faculty to engage in discussion, debate the issues and help you make a difference.

Hear from and collaborate with the 2015 Women in STEM Summit speakers:

• Amy Van Kirk, Director, University Relations, Talent Acquisition, PAREXEL International
• Anne-Marie Dorning, Founding Director, Olin College of Engineering
• Betsy Myers, Director, Human Resources, Center for Women and Business, Bentley University
• Cecily Kovatch, Sr. Director Ash Reuse Applications & Innovation, Covanta
• Claire Duggan, Director for Programs and Operations, The Center for STEM Education, Northeastern University
• Courtney Tanenbaum, Senior Researcher, American Institutes for Research
• Tiana Veldwisch, Technical Marketing Manager, Daktari Diagnostics
• Denise A. Sabolcik, Vice President, Application Development, FedEx Services
• Janice Mazzallo, Executive Vice President and CHRO, PeoplesBank
• John Brooks, President and CEO, Joslin Diabetes Center
• Julie Silard Kantor, Chief Partnership Officer, STEMconnector MillionWomenMentors
• Lisa Freed, P.E., LEED AP, STEM Program Manager, iRobot
• Sally Phelps, Olin Career Center Director, Olin College of Engineering
• Susan Vroman, Organizational Effectiveness Advisor, SmartPak
• Yvonne M. Spicer, Ed.D, DTE, Vice President of Advocacy & Educational Partnerships, National Center for Technological Literacy®, Museum of Science, Boston

Click here to view the complete agenda: http://bit.ly/1VdZ0nv

Register today to secure your seat! Each registration sponsors the attendance of students.  Invest in the future women of the industry, while increasing your organizations long-term competitive advantage.

You get $100 off the current rate when you use code WISBL. For more information or to register, click here: http://bit.ly/1VdZ0nv

Cheers,
The Women in STEM Summit Team
@WISSummit
#WISExchange15


Tuesday, August 25, 2015

My Story/My Advice: Julia Curran

This My Story/My Advice post features Julia Curran, a woman in STEM who works at Takeda Oncology. The My Story/My Advice project, brought to you by The Women in STEM Summit, which highlights women in STEM that are persisting in STEM fields and making a difference. It also gives their personal advice to the next generation of young women looking for encouragement to persist in STEM.


Julia’s Story:

I found early on that I was passionate about the life sciences. I asked my parents for a lab coat and a microscope for my 9th birthday. In my 5th grade yearbook I wrote that as my future career, I wanted to find the cure to cancer and it turns out that I now work at a company that aspires to cure cancer. I have always been passionate about the life sciences and having seen people in my life affected by cancer as so many do, I was motivated to help oncology patients which is what drove me to work in an oncology research lab in college and now work at Takeda Oncology.

Julia’s Advice:

I recently read a National Geographic article on why it’s crucial to get more women into science and one thing that struck me about the article was how the author stated how his daughter of 13 years is interested in math and science and he says “it hasn’t occurred to her yet that its unusual but I know in the next couple of years it will.” He goes on to say “I know as time goes on, she’ll feel increasingly lonely as a girl who is interested in math and science-and be at risk of narrowing her choices before finding out how far she could have gone.”

This resonated with me because I found early on that I was passionate about the life sciences and as a young girl, I never felt lonely or unusual being involved in the science. I have been fortunate to have strong role models throughout my education as well as parents who have tremendously supported my career path. My advice is to find a mentor and to surround yourself with people that will support you and encourage you to pursue your interests! I found my first STEM role model in my middle school science teacher who not only encouraged me but also challenged me and supported me to pursue more advanced scientific work.


Register for the upcoming Women in STEM Summit taking place October 22, 2015 in Boston, MA. The event brings together companies struggling to fill their STEM job pipelines with female college students pursuing STEM degrees. The summit is designed to facilitate closing the gap between corporate needs for a STEM-enabled workforce and student questions about job prospects that align their passion with the needs of corporate America. For more information or to register, click here: http://bit.ly/1hZFME2

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

My Story/My Advice: Frida Polli

This My Story/My Advice post features Frida Polli, PhD, who owns a neuroscience-based technology company. The My Story/My Advice project, brought to you by The Women in STEM Summit, highlights women in STEM that are persisting in STEM fields and making a difference. It also gives their personal advice to the next generation of young women looking for encouragement to persist in STEM.

Frida’s Story:
My path to entrepreneurship was long and circuitous. I have both a PhD and an MBA, both of which have been extremely valuable as I have worked to build my own neuroscience-based tech company. I find science really fascinating, which drove my initial decision to go into the world of academia. I spent six years at Harvard and MIT, doing my neuroscience PhD and post-doc work, but longed to find a practical application to the research I was doing.

I left the world of academia to pursue my MBA, and it was during that experience that I saw the career assessment and recruiting process firsthand for the first time. I was struck by the fact that very little objective information was being used to make incredibly important career decisions, and that’s where the idea for pymetrics came about: why not use what we know about neuroscience to make finding your ideal career easier? We use a series of fun neuroscience games to recommend compatible careers, and hiring companies come to the site to recruit candidates that are a good match for them. It’s like LinkedIn meets OkCupid!

Both my MBA and PhD have been essential to pymetrics, in large part because of the nature of the company. An MBA helped me build a strong foundation in business, and has served me well through the mentorship and network that I received. However, we are a business built on life sciences technology, and this would be hard to do without the decade that my co-founder and I both put into learning the technology through a PhD and then a postdoc. Through pymetrics, I’m able to bring neuroscience into the world of business, and use it to help folks find fulfillment and success in their careers - what could be better?

Frida’s Advice:
Be open to life’s opportunities - you never know how things might come together in the end. Each experience brings its own lessons. And come check out pymetrics!


Register for the upcoming Women in STEM Summit taking place October 22, 2015 in Boston, MA. The event brings together companies struggling to fill their STEM job pipelines with female college students pursuing STEM degrees. The summit is designed to facilitate closing the gap between corporate needs for a STEM-enabled workforce and student questions about job prospects that align their passion with the needs of corporate America. For more information or to register, click here: http://bit.ly/1JqWjwG

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers get inspired attending the Women in STEM Summit

Getting young people interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers is said to be a high priority for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, specifically encouraging and stimulating qualified women into doing engineering and science.

Last year the 15 team members of New England District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (six male supervisors and nine female employees from Engineering/ Planning) found themselves among attendees at the Women in STEM conference.

Scott Acone, Chief of Engineering/Planning shared, “For Engineering and Planning, I wanted to know how we can create an environment that is more welcoming and open for both attracting and retaining qualified women doing engineering and science activities.”

The feedback on this question came not only from the presenters, but also from the District team themselves. Mark Anderson, New England District’s STEM coordinator said, “People felt comfortable enough to have a conversation. We sat and had about a 20-minute group recap. There were some really honest opinions that were going around the table at the end.” For some men in the audience it was an eye-opening experience to learn about the challenges for women in the STEM fields.

One of the team members stated that the highlight of the conference last year was ‘Broadening the Breadth of STEM Workforce Through Racial and Ethnic Diversity,' presented by Dr. Uma Gupta, Founder and Executive Director, STEM-Smart.org. Dr. Gupta talked about biology of the nervous system behind stereotypes and how we can recognize our unconscious prejudices, both racial and gender to use that to change our behavior.

The Women in STEM 2014 drove awareness and created more opportunities for mentorship and career development for those who attended the event.

Here are some of the titles that will be covered during the Women in STEM Summit 2015:

• Strategies for Effectively Hiring and Retaining STEM Talent
• Smart STEM Investing: What to Measure and Why Diversity Matters to the Bottom Line
• The Tone at the Top Matters: Creating a Culture to Advance Employee and Organizational Goals
• Case Study: Integrating Recent College Graduates into Your Workforce and more.


Read the Women in STEM Summit agenda here.
RVSP your seat now here.


The IIR's Women in STEM Summit 2015, Bentley University, Massachusetts

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

How One Hashtag #ilooklikeanengineer Changed the World

Isis Wenger, a 22-year-old platform engineer in San Francisco, was involved in a recruiting campaign for her company OneLogin. As a part of the campaign, she posted a photo of herself using the hashtag #ilooklikeanengineer and the response shocked her. Soon, her post was everywhere.  

“If you knew me you would probably know that being famous is one of my biggest nightmares; seriously right up there with falling into a porta potty,” she told The Washington Post in a recent interview.  

Her photo and hashtag included a challenge:

“Do you feel passionately about helping spread awareness about tech gender diversity? Do you not fit the ‘cookie-cutter mold’ of what people believe engineers ‘should look like? If you answered yes to any of these questions, I invite you to help spread the word and help us redefine ‘what an engineer should look like’ #iLookLikeAnEngineer.”

Soon, her message went viral across the Web.

Image via MarketWatch

“I think the message went viral because it’s not just my message,” Wenger told The Post. That’s why she made sure the hashtag was so all-encompassing. “It addresses a problem that many people of different genders and ethnic backgrounds face.”

Especially when she was first starting out in the industry when people were very condescending. But growing up, she had already taught herself to build websites by the time she was eight, by right-clicking ‘view source’ on Neopets and reverse-engineering bits of code to figure out what each individual tag did.

By early Tuesday afternoon, the hashtag #Ilooklikeanengineer had sparked 36,000 tweets, and other innovations, like one page — showing women in caps and gowns, Lilly Pulitzer and pink hair — a storytelling app about diversity in tech, and a T-shirt someone designed featuring the hashtag with half the proceeds going to a charity Wenger selects.

“Honestly, I consider it all to be very heartwarming and inspiring,” Wenger said.

She was surprised that so many people posted photos but said it was fun scrolling through seeing the incredible diversity of images and felt that, once the idea picked up momentum, everyone wanted to be part of that community.


She said, “It’s simultaneously overwhelming and incredibly empowering to feel like I am genuinely helping increase awareness.”

Thursday, August 6, 2015

My Story/My Advice: Lenore Kubie, Ph.D.

This My Story/My Advice post features Lenore Kubie, Ph.D. and Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of Wyoming. The My Story/My Advice project brought to you by The Women in STEM Summit highlights women in STEM that are persisting in STEM fields and making a difference. It also gives their personal advice to the next generation of young women looking for encouragement to persist in STEM.
Lenore’s Story:
My name is Lenore Kubie. I graduated with my PhD from the University of Rochester in August 2014. I study photoinduced charge transfer, and hope to continue my work studying ways to use solar energy to meet our growing energy demands. Specifically, over the last seven years I have studied the incorporation of nanomaterials into photovoltaic devices as a means of decreasing cost and increasing efficiency.

In the future, I hope to also continue doing outreach to help the people of the world understand and utilize solar energy. While working on my doctorate, I spent two summers in Ghana, Africa teaching school children and villages about solar energy, and new ways we can use light to power our world. Since defending, I have been trying to find a job in my field, and in the meantime I have been surviving on my savings and credit cards. I was not "above" getting an interim job at a supermarket or as a lab technician, but I was told I was "overqualified" for most of the jobs I applied for while I wasn't quite the right fit for many other jobs I applied for in my field. I have finally found a postdoc, which is a fantastic fit for me!

Unfortunately, I need to move out to Laramie, WY from Rochester, NY and I have no money to do it. This position does not offer any relocation money, and so I have created a GoFundMe to help with my moving van, a hotel stay for a night (or two) during the 24-hour car ride out there, and a down payment on an apartment. The campaign can be found here

Lenore’s Advice:
My advice to the next generation is to give as much as you can to the world! Get out there and get your hands dirty! I have been so humbled by people reaching out and contributing to my GoFundMe, and it has become awe-inspiring; it makes me want to give back even more.

Check out more inspiring stories and useful advice from women in STEM here: http://bit.ly/1MT3Tjp


Register for the upcoming Women in STEM Summit taking place October 22, 2015 in Boston, MA. The event brings together companies struggling to fill their STEM job pipelines with female college students pursuing STEM degrees. The summit is designed to facilitate closing the gap between corporate needs for a STEM-enabled workforce and student questions about job prospects that align their passion with the needs of corporate America. For more information or to register, click here: http://bit.ly/1IKOIm1

Monday, August 3, 2015

The Women in STEM Summit Brochure is Ready for You!

IIR’s Women in Stem Summit brings together students from leading colleges pursuing STEM coursework, professionals in STEM fields and representatives from top companies looking to increase their STEM firepower. Join us for a day of learning, networking, and collaboration around talent acquisition and career development for women in STEM.

The Women in STEM Summit
October 22, 2015
Bentley University
Waltham, MA


Download the brochure to view the full agenda and speaking line-up: http://bit.ly/1SWO8rb

Human Resource Executives:
Recruit women in stem and drive diversity in your firm

Women in STEM Careers:
Be an inspiration! Mentor and support young women into stem careers.

Academic Institutions:
Connect your female stem students to mentors, internships and jobs.

Register today: http://bit.ly/1eOk9Ep

P.S. Do you have a motivational story to tell? Share your professional journey (what interested you in STEM work, what kept you engaged) and personal advice to the next generation of women in STEM through our My Story/My Advice project: http://bit.ly/1E4MyfY

Best,

The Women in STEM Summit Team 2015
Tweet at us: @WISExchange