At the Women in Tech event, 60 Leyden girls were able to meet and learn from six women working in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields. The panelists provided students information about different careers, an effort by companies to supporting STEM education and fill positions.

Panelist Jess Keys explained that her career in STEM began with a search for a career centered on creativity.She started out going the public relations route in college but then later switched because it wasn’t for her. She decided to go towards advertising, which she enjoyed, but within her company she fell in love with the digital department. Keys thus decided through this to create her own blog. Keys also left the even adoring Leyden. She stated, “My favorite part about today was meeting everyone. This is the most inspirational group of high school girls I have ever met. I am blown away. It’s really awesome to see a group of women that are so driven and want to get into this so early in their lives.”

Senior Paula Bassmaji was similarly impressed with Ms. Keys and the event, overall. Bassmaji stated, “I learned things from panelists that I didn’t think I would learn from. I didn’t have any interest in pursuing a career in technology, but I still learned how to market myself in women in tech. Exposure is so important.”  This impacted her and many other girls at the event because to get any type of job you need to market yourself and to make yourself look like you would be a better employee than anyone else applying for the same job.

Another very important panelist, Ms. Eva Robert from Google, attended for the second time this year already to talk to Leyden girls in technology. She has thoroughly expressed her minimal yet transforming struggles during her time in STEM. Luckily this has never happened at her job, but in college one of her friends stated that she earned something just because she was a girl. There is the occasional kid in the back of the room that would have to fault all of the ridiculous knowledge that they have, but her counterpart females would help create a barrier from the ridiculousness. Overall, Ms. Robert liked technology because it brought together all of her other interests. She believes that she has made a small impact so far, but believes she will make a much larger impact in the future. Ms. Robert stated that the most important thing to take away from the session was to do one thing: what you love.

“It’s nice to see how even if you don’t know what you want to do right now, that it’s okay because it will come to you even if it might not be right now,” said Senior Avani Shaw. She now understands that she doesn’t have to worry too much about what she is going to do or where she is going to work right now; she rather worry about what she enjoys and finding her passions. Miriam Hernandez also loved hearing about how the women found their path. It helped give her ideas on how to reach her dream of being a computer security analyst.

Many of the girls at the event actually brought up the fact that it is nice to see that you don’t have to know right now what you want to do. Technology may be one of your passions, but the great thing about it is that you don’t just have to look into one part of technology if that is what you want to try to find a career in.