Carr Hall hosted the annual Women in STEM conference on Sunday, Nov. 5. The event lasted all day from 9 am and ended at 6:30 pm.
The event was organized by Emma Cartney, ’24, and Emma Chambers, ’24, who are members of the Society of Physics Students. The conference used to be more about women in physics, but now it has changed to interest a broader audience.
“My biggest goal is honestly visibility of all the cool things women can do in STEM and being able to hear from people at many parts in their career,” Cartney said.
After registration and breakfast in the lobby, the attendees got to hear about Fulya Kiroglu’s research as an astrophysics Ph.D student at Northwestern University. They also had an opportunity to ask her questions.
Then they got to hear from keynote speaker Nicola Dent, the CEO of Optical Filters, a Meadville-based company that designs and manufactures touchscreens and displays. Dent discussed her experience in business prior to her current work and what her company does.
“When we pull from other groups on campus we raise awareness and help these women through like going to grad school, things that they might not usually get information on,” Chambers said. “Seeing other people in the industry and how successful they are, especially Nicola Dent, that was such a great talk, and it was really eye-opening for me and everyone else to see all the possibilities. It’s not always limited to grad school or industry, it’s not limited to those things, it’s to just spread awareness of options that women have that aren’t always communicated to them.”
From 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., attendees got to hear from a panel of STEM Allegheny alumni.
After lunch, there was a poster session where Cartney, Chambers, Alexis Pleskovitch, ’23, and Danielle Savellano, ’25, presented their research in the lobby.
At 3 p.m., Juliana Sebolt, ’20, talked about her research as a physics Ph.D school student at the University of Pittsburgh.
At 3:30 p.m. Pleskovitch presented on how important female and queer representation is in STEM because the automatic image of a scientist is a male.
“I think it’s very important for women to go to different conferences because it’s a very male-dominated area and so I think it’s very important for women to go out and learn more,” said Anne Moise, ’26. “I think it’s really nice and the second thing that we did with the CEO of Optic Filters, I really enjoyed that one. I really looked forward to hearing the alumni panel talk about graduate school and how they found their program.”
Then the attendees got to decorate the tote bags they received in the morning.
At 4:30 p.m., Beth Hudak spoke over Zoom about her journey from undergraduate studies to her current job in the Naval Research Laboratory. She discussed what working there is like and answered any questions the attendees had.
After dinner was the final event was a panel of undergraduate students who discussed their college journey so far, their future plans, and any advice they had.
“I’ve always been interested in the sciences and I want to be surrounded by that culture of women in the workforce,” Savellano said. “When I was growing up, the fields that were the most prominent in my country were medicine and engineering and they were considered to be, at least in my family, the best way for academic and career success, but here were some points where people would say it’s not meant for a woman. Especially in my country where it was a very male-dominated space.”