CSE students attend Grace Hopper Celebration

Every fall MSU students anticipate attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC), a professional conference that celebrates women for their achievements and aspirations in computing and information technology. This year, GHC'13 did not disappoint!

Twenty-some MSU students joined more than 4500 attendees of GHC'13 in Minneapolis, MN on October 2-5th for three days of learning, bonding, and fun. Students had the wonderful and unique opportunity to meet leading computing professionals, faculty, and peers from over 42 countries across the globe. They attended inspirational talks by technology leaders, learned of new technologies and their implications for our futures, received and shared expert advice with mentors and peers, and learned of opportunities for summer internships and employment with more than 120 national and international companies in computing and information technology. But most importantly, they learned more about the wide field of computing through sessions in medicine, engineering, automobiles and social media to name a few.

Attending the conference as a group allowed MSU students to bond and get to know one another better. Students came back with many great memories to share.

Here are remarks from a couple of attendees:
"This year at Grace Hopper was a great chance to bond with fellow women in computing. We had a memorable drive up, getting caught in terrible Wisconsin traffic, but also spotting some Northern Lights before we hit Eau Claire. The various lunch and coffee conversations were awesome; I happened to meet women from all over the country who worked at all types of companies, from Pinterest to Intel. The career opportunities were also great, as three companies offered me interviews during the conference, and several followed up afterward." ~Erin Hoffman

"This will be my third time going to the Grace Hopper conference and, as usual, I had a great time! Although not the only fantastic speaker event, this year's big thing was the opening plenary session to the conference. It was a conversation including Maria Kawe, Sheryl Sandberg, and Telle Whitney. These amazing women, as you would expect, had a conversation about the topic of women in technical fields, about some of their experiences, and answered questions from the crowd. They, along with many of the speakers that presented throughout the week, were incredibly inspiring. For me, they encourage me to do as the title of Mrs. Sandberg's book suggests - to "Lean In" - to take advantage of opportunities, to speak up and out, and to strive to be seen in my field as more than my gender." ~ Danielle Guir

(Date Posted: 2013-11-05)