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7 years ago
National Conference For College Women Student Leaders 

National Conference for College Women Student Leaders 

NCCWSL Wrap Up

Little broccoli shoots - the young trees sprout, compared to the elder trees spared by loggers. The broccoli are proof of an investment, confidence that the Iron Range's timber is desired. With Norway Pines lit like honey mead and faults of farmland irrigation exposed by a birds eye view, I descend upon Range Regional Airport. The NCCWSL leadership conference sprouted its own investment in hopes that we will become leaders that initiate positive change. Our definition of positive change was shaped by NCCWSL's keynote speakers, workshops, excursions, exchanges, and interpretations. If these experiences were taken at face value I do not believe "that" definition of positive change is best for our country. If taken with a grain of salt, a packet of pepper and a squirt of ketchup then a rational, moderate, and welcomed definition of positive change can be found.

Messaging

As reflected in this week's workshop titles and bios of speakers, this conference resonated primarily with the hopes and dreams of left-wing thinkers. Right-wing thinkers and the bipartisan curious may have been dissuaded by the polarity, thus surrendering the awesome opportunity to meet and be empowered by tenacious women who also strive to strengthen America. This conference did a stellar job energizing women with the same beliefs but did not teach us how to listen to, work alongside and communicate with those in strongest opposition. Like a fancy Sunday picnic I was equipped with metaphorical seasonings. I softened the extreme rhetoric and enhanced rudimentary flavors - ideas that reasonable human beings could get behind. For example, Melissa Harris-Perry is a passionate speaker, PhD, professor, and author. The delivery of her ideas, catered toward the conference goers, may shut down audiences she might want to persuade the most. Sifting through her flourishes, I found motivation to learn more about American history and search for the history of individuals lost from the pages of public school textbooks. I hope future NCCWSLs tackle the challenging task of teaching future leaders the ability to effectively and respectfully communicate with individuals with different beliefs.

Leadership

Meeting former chiefs of staff exemplified the presence of influential women on Capitol Hill. This brief panel and 2017 Women of Distinction Awards celebrating the success of five women gave conference goers a tangible illustration of successful professional women. With the presence of seasoned leaders, I did not learn any new leadership strategies to take back to my Co-Ops. Despite marketing the conference for "college student leaders" only a third of workshops and lectures claimed to be leadership focused. The third of leadership focused content did not offer content that challenged my understanding of leadership like I hoped for. Leadership is a challenging topic to teach effectively without elementary group activities, polarizing rhetoric, and parroting TED Talk clips. Equipped with the network of so many influential women leaders NCCWSL could recruit seasoned leaders to mentor conference goers to provide experience based leadership education.

Civic Action

Aspiring astronaut, sexual assault survivor and author of a bill of rights - Amanda Nguyen was my favorite speaker at the NCCWSL conference. Nguyen described how she drafted the Survivors' Bill of Rights Act of 2016, persisted to ensure it was passed in the Senate, unanimously passed in the House, and ultimately signed into law October 7th, 2016. Nguyen continues to write law into existence through Rise - which she founded. AAUW (American Association of University Women), parent organization of NCCWSL, has be active in formulating women's rights since 1881 including actions around Title IX. Despite this rich history with civic engagement NCCWSL offered no opportunity to draft law or engage with state representatives to make change. During this conference there was a lot of identification of problems with few avenues and instruction to find a solution. Workshops and lectures could be focused around finding solutions and our tourist outings to D.C. could be replaced with constructive meetings with Senators and Congressmen. Conveniently held in our nation's capitol NCCWSL has a unique opportunity to get young leaders engaged with constructing civic solutions.

Clickety clack I could type my opinions on NCCWSL all day. NCCWSL attendees and my actions moving forward is what will make the difference for future conferences. NCCWSL will send out a survey for feedback where conference goers can express their ideas for next year. Additionally there is an opportunity to become a student leader and help shape the curriculum for NCCWSL. My idea for a component of a future NCCWSL includes...

*Creating a theme around the conference such as working women, parental leave or equal pay.

*Prior to the conference students would draft legislation or thoughts to share with state representatives.

*First day of the conference students would meet in groups to refine legislation and their message.

*Second day students would meet with leaders on Capitol Hill to introduce ideas and/or legislation.

*Last day students would be to debrief and brainstorm next steps and action items for post conference.

I am thankful that AAUW Duluth chapter sponsored my NCCWSL journey. I am also thankful for the opportunity to meet other student leaders, hear their stories and get connected. No matter how involved I will be with this conference in the future, I am motivated to improve my communication with individuals with different beliefs, find new effective practices of leadership I can apply at my Co-Op, and learn how my civic action can improve our nation.

National Conference For College Women Student Leaders 

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7 years ago
Why Should Anyone Listen?  Day Three NCCWSL
Why Should Anyone Listen?  Day Three NCCWSL
Why Should Anyone Listen?  Day Three NCCWSL

Why Should Anyone Listen?  Day Three NCCWSL

Three of the biggest mistakes women speakers make include; apologizing, not including quality humor, and not taking up space on stage - according to Nancy Denney. Denney is a professional speaker and speech coach who has opened for celebrities like Dr.Phil, owns a publishing company, and visited 900 college campuses. This "Be Better: Enhamced Speaking Skills for Women" workshop was a component that made this conference worth while. Tips you can apply to become a more competent and effective speaker include...

* Practice, practice practice - practice longer than it took to formulate your speech.

* Make meaningful controlled gestures while speaking.

* Memorize your speech but don't sound robotic during delivery.

* Think on the fly during your speech to keep your audience engaged and connected.

* Have someone introduce you to establish credibility.

* Continue to establish your credibility throughout the speech.

* Remember that you are worth listening too, you are the expert and there is a reason you are up there speaking and no one else.

Why Should Anyone Listen?  Day Three NCCWSL

News show host Melissa Harris-Perry expressed the value of women contributions in college, community and congress. Harris-Perry is an author, Ph.D., and professor. She shared the need to teach the history of underrepresented individuals and recognizing them in public spaces. After this keynote I am much more interested in learning and respecting history than when I bumbled through K-12 history classes. Her "call to action" for us included holding ourselves and others accountable to vote in elections, listen to stories of members in our communities and be mindful of the where we get our news from. Even as a show host Harris-Perry advises we not get news from major networks rather with a grain of salt from public radio and podcasts.

Reflections of the day were "Does it matter what women know?", "Why should anyone listen to you?" and "What if we had taken her seriously?". Ways we can be heard include being confident in your competence of a subject, walk your talk and back up your views with fact. Women as a whole need to improve on being effective communicators and the whole country can improve on being better listeners.

Why Should Anyone Listen?  Day Three NCCWSL

Following a keynote, two workshops, a career fair, a graduate school fair, and lunch we were bused out to D.C. to sight see. My group power walked around hitting all the major monuments!

Why Should Anyone Listen?  Day Three NCCWSL

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7 years ago
Every Time I Google My University Of Minnesota Duluth Initials, "UMD", Results For University Of Maryland
Every Time I Google My University Of Minnesota Duluth Initials, "UMD", Results For University Of Maryland
Every Time I Google My University Of Minnesota Duluth Initials, "UMD", Results For University Of Maryland
Every Time I Google My University Of Minnesota Duluth Initials, "UMD", Results For University Of Maryland
Every Time I Google My University Of Minnesota Duluth Initials, "UMD", Results For University Of Maryland

Every time I Google my University of Minnesota Duluth initials, "UMD", results for University of Maryland appear. Since the leadership conference is held at U of Maryland, I get to meet the infamous university that plagues my peers' web browsers. My adventure began driving to Hibbing, Minnesota's Airport through the red painted ore hills of the Iron Range. Middle Precambrian treasures tempt to be excavated, awaiting America to be great again. Adorned with big game trophies Hibbing Airport's pace greatly differed from Minneapolis, Minnesota's metropolis of travel. Minneapolis has every reasonable pH of bottled water for sale, designated therapy dogs and indoor golf. Upon arrival in D.C. I scuffled to a shuttle, scooted around cities, and eventually meandered to the other UMD. I was welcomed by boxes of chocolate Luna Bars, a packed itenerary and a gaggle of gals ready to fine tune leadership. Tomorrow holds a trip to Capitol Hill to hear from a panel of D.C. professionals and the NCCWSL (National Conference for College Women Student Leaders pronounced "Nick Whistle").


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7 years ago
Looking Forward To Leadership Conference NCCWSL

Looking Forward to Leadership Conference NCCWSL

Following Memorial Day I will be traveling to DC for NCCWSL, National Conference for College Women Student Leaders, by AAUW (American Association of University Women). AAUW Duluth chapter has given me the awesome opportunity to meet students from around America, represent my engineering discipline and refine my leadership skills.

While Co-Oping at NASA I learned what categories of leadership they look for when hiring branch chiefs, flight directors and even center directors. NASA looks for individuals that can Lead Change, Lead People, are Results Driven, have Business Acumen, can Build Teams and have Discipline Competency. Our center director, Ellen Ochoa, has all of these leadership skills. A leader in a lower position may not have to have business acumen or have weaknesses in two of these categories. With leadership skills identified I have chosen what workshops I should attend...

I Get Knocked Down, but I Get Up Again: Persevering through Life’s Challenges

The Human Side of Collaboration

Be Better: Enhanced Speaking Skills for Women

...including keynote speakers and a trip downtown to learn about advocacy, politics, and policy making from a panel of women who work for senators and representatives on Capitol Hill. I am avoiding sessions that could be replaced by a TEDTalk and sessions presented by business folks that may be there simply to pitch their company - these are all disappointments I have experienced in past conferences.

I am half surprised and half not surprised about how politically charged some of these workshops and lectures are (NCCWSL is hosted in our nation's capitol after all and AAUW uses policy to advance equality). Many leaders in industry do not interface with politics on a daily basis so I hope there is enough relevant content that will truly challenge my understanding of leadership. I want brutal honesty on how I can improve and tools that I can use in industry. I will attend with an open mind.

When I visited the White House in 2013 for a tech related Champions of Change event I advocated for project based learning in schools - reducing standardize testing and implementing measurable projects mirroring challenges in "the real world". During this excursion my primary message will about continuing and growing Earth observation missions. For a final spring semester I wrote about how crucial Earth observation missions are to our environment, safety and economy. I will be sure to post an abridged version here soon. While Earth observation is my primary message I will be sure to also talk about the importance of the "A" in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math), how trade schools are critical to American jobs and manufacturing and last project based learning again.

I will be live blogging during the conference so subscribe via email to get the latest blog posts and follow me on Twitter @KirsiCootie!


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8 years ago
Attending A DC Leadership Conference In May! 

Attending a DC leadership conference in May! 

I will meet US college student leaders, participate in workshops & visit Capitol Hill. One of activity reads, "[Learn about]... advocacy, politics, and policy making from a panel of women who work for senators and representatives on Capitol Hill". Summer of 2013 I attended President Obama's Champions of Change White House event with NCWIT Aspirations in Computing sharing the importance of "project based learning" in schools. I talked with policy makers, company leaders and educators about how project based learning could be implemented and assessed. Additionally, I met Minnesota Senator Al Franken who since has visited FIRST robotics teams in my hometown & supported STEAM heavily. Again I want to have a focused message to share during my DC mission. I may keep the project based learning theme or pick a new one. I would love to hear your thoughts about what message I should share! Who knows who I'll run into!

I am so thankful AAUW Duluth MN awarded me with a scholarship making it possible to attend the AAUW's National Conference for College Women Student Leaders. Here is the agenda of the conference: https://www.nccwsl.org/about/agenda/

Watch for live blogging! Pictures are from my 2013 White House experience.

Attending A DC Leadership Conference In May! 
Attending A DC Leadership Conference In May! 

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