Summary of PC discussion on Fall 2006 events
1****2006-2007 THEME****We have to choose one from the two below.
(We will emphasize a positive attitude and focus on empowering women instead of discouraging them. I will try to convey this message in the reminding emails that I send to speakers before the event.)
o What Do Women (Scientists and Engineers) Really Want? [Tingting, Erica, Tong]
o Building confidence and building community [Heidi H., Lori, Heidi K.]
2 MENTORING
We do want to continue with the mentoring program and definitely need a volunteer to be mentoring program coordinator for next year.
3 FUNDING & PROMOTIONAL ITEMS
We will have $1000~1500 left for the academic year after the last event this spring (excluding the leftover money from last year). So we will definitely get something made with WiSE logo!
T-shirt / envelop opener / calendar / notebook Let's also throw in a party for Lori, Heather, and you all for the fabulous year! This will be in late April.
4 Fall 2006 events
There will be a traditional "If I knew then what I know now" session co-sponsored with GPWN. In addition to that, we can do A, C, E of the list below in fall, and save the other two panel discussions for spring 2007. Let me know what you think.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
***Fall 2006 EVENTS ****(for full info and easy reading, see feb9 meeting minutes)
(A)
Jo Rae Wright, biology [Tingting, Erica, Heidi H., Lori, Tong]
(C)
Helen Pak-Harvey, chemistry [Heather, Lori, Heidi K.]
(E)
Panel on Family / Career Balance [Heather, Erica, Heidi H., Tong]
o Dr. Manjiri Sethna, biochemistry, left academia [Tingting]
o Haiyan Gao, physics, Chinese [Tingting, Lori]
o Nan Jokerst, ECE
o Wendy Wood, Psychology [Erica]
o Emily Klein, geology (appropriate for this topic?)
o Carla Ellis, CPS (appropriate for this topic?)
(H/I/B)
Life after graduation - academia / industry [Erica, Heidi K., Heidi H.]
o Shannon Dahl, BME
o Kristin Weidemaier, chemistry
o Melissa Pasquinelli, chemistry
o Caterina Gallippi, BME [Lori]
o Emily Bernhardt, ecology
o Anna Lin, physics
o J. Aura Gimm, BME
o Heather Dean, neurobiology [Tingting]
(J)
Exploring Alternative Careers [Heather, Erica, Heidi H., Tong]
o Amy Collinsworth, BME, tech transfer
o Victoria McGovern, biochemistry, science writer
o Sherry Carty, biochemistry, intellectual property
o Susan Dakin, zoology, consulting
o Kirsten Nielsen, psychology, Portfolio Priortization & Analysis
o Freda Porter, math and CPS, tech business
5 summer events?Shall we plan something small for the summer?
Let me and Erica know if you get any information about volunteering opportunities and we'll list it on the website!
6 ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
HEATHER:
I like the idea of concentrating on work/life balance for awhile. GPWN had a Women as Leaders theme this year, and it seems that WiSE usually has a strong focus on professional development. This might be an interesting switch.
TINGTING:
I think a party will be good for both mentors and mentees.
ERICA:
I've heard from several people that they "don't know what to do" with their mentees after they've been introduced. Another kick-off event/mingle party could give them an excuse to meet again. Also, it gives people a deadline to work from to get them to sign up to be a mentor or mentee.
HEIDI H.
Has anyone had any good experiences with their mentee from this program yet?
I'm meeting with mine for the first time on Wed., so after that I might have a better idea of what will work. Given that people are mostly matched up, I'm not sure about a party...maybe a dinner out or a movie or something?
Something structured that the pairs will come to, but in a large group? We had talked before about doing some volunteering a science museum in Durham or Raleigh--that might be an excellent opportunity for the mentoring pairs to work together. Whether we go there in pairs, or I believe we had talked about putting together bags of materials, so we could have a "bag stuffing party" or something. That way we could combine some volunteering with some mentoring.
JIA
As to the mentoring program, being a mentee myself, I think the most important thing is figuring out a practical method for us to meet the goals of mentoring.
I suggest that inviting some successful and experienced mentors and mentees in this program to introduce their methods and ideas would be a good choice.
What are your opinions about this?
LORI
Mentoring Program: Mingle party and get a volunteer to coordinate it
If we have discussions on balancing career & family, is there any way to make it less doom & gloom? Can we focus on women who have maybe used innovative choices to make their careers and families flourish? For example, Dr. Varadan suggested hiring household help, which is frowned upon in some sectors of American culture. Some WiSE women may have never considered how much a housekeeper could be helpful to their success.
Also, I'm a little worried about speakers who seem to support the feeling that it's nearly impossible to have a family and an academic career. I've found those talks to be highly discouraging.
In addition, it seems we never know what a speaker's story will be until they're speaking at a WiSE event. For example, one year, WiSE invited a prestigious speaker who was supposed to speak on balancing career with
family. Instead, she told us that her career had been due to a series of
mistakes, starting with her doctoral advisor confusing her with another student when he wrote her recommendation letter for her first position.
Maybe she was being self-effacing and didn't want to take all the credit for her accomplishments. Nonetheless, it taught me little about how I could succeed on my own merit, while balancing a career with family. In the end, I found her observations to be discouraging because her career appeared largely dependent on luck.
Is it possible for us to know what our speakers will be presenting before they are standing before the WiSE group? Also, is it possible to have multiple lunches on different aspects of career & family?
HEIDI H
And, I know that other women that I have talked to feel the same way. My one female officemate and I often talk about how discouraging it is, even when women talk about having managed getting tenure and everything. It seems so hard, like even still you have to make a choice: career, family, or
7 years of living hell. :) At least, that is often the feeling that I come out of those talks with!
So, anyway, I totally agree with Lori--let's try something more positive, and at the same time, more constructive.
What, Lori, you don't like the element of surprise? :) I agree, it would be good to have an outline, at least, although I'm not sure we can get an outline before we ask people to speak, and at that point, it's sort of too late.
CARRIE
Another vote of agreement here. I was discussing this with a friend of mine at UNC (she's doing environmental science there), and we agree that the statistics are very depressing and defeating.
HEIDI K.
mentoring - a mingle party?
Let's think about a mingle party as part of the April GSA week.
TONG - I agree with Claire that we need to cap the number of people attending events. No more than 45 people if we are going to have it at the Women's Center. If we get a huge response, we should consider inviting the speaker next semester and those people who couldn't attend the first talk will be automatically added to the next talk being given by the
speaker. I don't want us to be bothered with the hassle of a microphone,
nor should we be feeding close to 100 people. We don't have the budget for that.
