The Grace Hopper Experience
The National Center for Women and Information Technology and Aspirations in Computing program were present throughout my experience at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference.
First of all, my roommate during the conference was Veronica Wharton, whom I met online as a fellow Aspirations winner. Throughout the conference, I kept meeting more fellow Aspirations winners and found them all to be such welcoming people. The first day of the conference can be summed up by talking about the enormous GHC career fair and the poster presentation. It is so incredible to see all these great companies together in such close proximity! Going from booth to booth, passing out resumes, getting company swag - it was all very exhilarating. The poster presentation was scheduled in the middle of this huge career fair, so I had to separate myself from the enticing booths to present my research. It was a great experience to talk about my work in developing an Android application for school emergencies. After the poster presentation ended, I went back to the career fair and ended up scheduling two interviews for the next day. Once I got to the hotel, I would’ve loved to stay up talking with Veronica, but both of us needed to get our rest as the next morning NCWIT and Bloomberg hosted breakfast for us Aspirations winners.
The next day started with a delicious meal and great conversation. I met recruiters at Bloomberg and got to meet some more Aspirations girls. It is great to be able to match some of those profile pictures to real people. The rest of the day was a blur of a great keynote, various sessions, and interviews, and it was all capped off with a great awards ceremony. Hearing about all the great accomplishments other women in tech was very inspiring. Following the ceremony was a dance party, which was a great way to end the night.
The final day of Grace Hopper, I had more sessions to attend and was looking forward to the much anticipated NCWIT Aspirations Dinner. I got to sit down with some new friends for dinner and even got to see some executives from NCWIT’s sponsor companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Qualcomm, and many others. It was a great way to conclude Grace Hopper, surrounded by my friends.
