My SWE: Together We Rise 2024 Experience
Thankfully, I was one of the six women DePaul PROpel sponsored as Collegiate members. I was very grateful and was ready in my formal wear to absorb everything the huge event had to offer.
On the 24th of October, I reached the venue in the morning. The lines to check in were a little long, but nothing unbearable. As our tickets were covered by DePaul, there was not much we had to do, but just grab our badge from the counter. I would suggest that future SWE attendees sign in a day before the conference starts, so you can show up a little later in the day of the event.
The opening keynote was presented by Sharon Hong – Motorola Solution’s Vice President. It was a very impactful speech which touched all the women in the audience. Her personal story helped us understand just how much perseverance pays off. It was a great start to the event which allowed us to be motivated and excited about what’s to come next in our life through this event.
After the three days I spent at this event, there are some things I would like to reflect on.
- There are so many beautiful women out there who are incredibly talented and whom I wish to work with soon
- The future of women in STEM looks rich in opportunities
- There is no success without tremendous dedication and hard and smart work
My overall experience at the SWE24 event was empowering and very motivating. If next year PROpel DePaul is planning to take a couple of students to this event again, I will be honoured to show up and build on these wonderful experiences.
PS: One of my favourite parts of the event was the lunches and dinners (and some boba teas) I grabbed at Chinatown!
One of the first things you will learn once you are in college is how networking is everything, and without it, it is almost impossible to land an internship or a job. There is a lot of focus in college on building your soft skills to focus on your ability to do just that – network. I would like to share one of my latest experiences with networking in STEM.
DePaul’s CDM College on its own has a lot of options to connect with professionals and other students in your field. This comes in the form of workshops, panels, hackathons and career fairs. That gives you many opportunities throughout college to help get your foot through the corporate door. However, it does not end there. However, there is more. For example, the PROpel DePaul club. A month-ish ago, I applied to PROpel for the chance to attend the 2024 Society of Women Engineers Event: Together We Rise. It was going to be “The World’s Largest Conference for Women In Engineering & Technology” and was going to take place from October 24-26 at McCormick Place, right here in Chicago.
And what came next was incredible. There were several things you could pick to do as they were happening simultaneously: professional headshot studio, resume review station, more exciting speeches by other empowering women in STEM and most importantly: The grand career fair.
I visited the career fair for both days as it was incredibly huge! There were more than 16,000 attendees present, alongside 450+ organisations such as Apple, HP, Motorola Solutions and so many more.
This was the time to network!
