Day 1

When I first walked into the library (where the conference was taking place), I have to admit, I did feel a little out of place in the room. There were many women mingling about, all of them looking confident, smart, and knowledgeable. I was relieved and glad when my fellow grade 11 joined me as I was trying to busy myself next to the water dispenser, and together we sipped on our water contemplating how we should go mingle with the adults in the room.

We went hesitantly at first, talking to people we recognised, and soon started feeling more comfortable around the group of 80 or so adults. many people were surprised that we, students, were attending the conference, but then commended us for being offered this opportunity.

We soon moved upstairs where we settled onto tables and the first speaker Erin Robertson, introduced the conference by showing us some very surprising and eye-opening statistics. It made me realise the significant difference in the treatment of women when it comes to offering them leadership and head positions, as well as when it comes to salary.

The second speaker was Tekakwitha Pernambuco-Wise, the head of Sea Crest School in California, who spoke at length about the challenged women face in the world of work today, and how they can enable themselves to fare better in their professional lives.

All of this made me realised, that while the UWC community is so welcoming and great, it had also encased in a cocoon of safety and non-biases. I realised that when I think of opportunity, gender isn’t something that comes to mind as being a hurdle/hindrance in my path. Which is why I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of this conference as it gives me an idea of the wider, global community outside of my immediate one, and also will provide me with some tools to fare well for myself despite the gender situations and problems the world is currently tackling.

Day 2

Today’s discussions were much more centred on specifics. The talks I chose to attend were, getting the votes and effective leadership, and how to incorporate diversity in a group by leadership. Both those talks were very interesting, however, there were some aspects and points that I couldn’t really identify with. Aspects of talks focused on things like finding door openers and professional people who can support you through your career. As those points weren’t applicable to me, they stood out, and I will, therefore, remember them as a skill I gained for future use.

There was also a really powerful music based keynote talk about empowering other women around you. Things like the shine theory which states that if you don’t shine, I can’t shine, and the idea of ‘amplification’ that was used by female members in President Obama’s cabinet was something that made me realise how important a sense of community can be. Not people who you necessarily like or talk to too much, but just a group of people that you can identify, and aren’t uncomfortable being around.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the last break-out session as I had the light plot for a dance show in the coming week, and had to go attend that.

Day 3

This day, in my opinion, was more informal, allowing us to have discussions and role play about things like self-motivation, biases, and cultural diversity. However, this day was also where I was able to reflect on all the information, tips and new knowledge that I acquired throughout the last two days, and have a really thorough understanding about just how important female empowerment and female leadership is going to be in the coming future.