The Office of Career Development is hosting Wonder Women, a panel featuring female professionals, on Nov. 19 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Cotilla Gallery at the Alvin Sherman Library.
The panelists will be NSU Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jacqueline Travisano, Regional Vice President of Enterprise Holdings Tina Diehl, FBI Special Agent Alexis Carpinteri, and Captain Nicole V. Bastian of the United States Marine Corps.
Professor Kathleen Waites, who teaches English and gender studies in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences will be the panel’s moderator.
Assistant Director of On Campus Recruiting Megan Burns said the event is a discussion about how the women got to where they are and the choices they had to make.
“They’re going to, hopefully, inspire NSU students to want to achieve greater things,” Burns said. “It’s going to be a real empowerment event.”
Burns said it’s interesting to hear other women’s stories of the choices they made to get to where they are. She said these stories may help NSU students in the future as they start their careers and enter the workforce.
“Obviously ,we all want to be the best at what we do, and these women are the best at what they do,” Burns said. “So I think they will be great, tangible, relatable stories.”
Burns said the idea for the panel came from a meeting with organizational recruiters, while thinking of ways to engage students and offer them developmental opportunities, while building the organization’s brand on campus.
Career Ambassador Vanessa Matamoros, junior biology major, has been promoting the event by talking with students and handing out flyers. At SEA Thursday on Oct. 31, she talked to students while wearing a Wonder Woman shirt and will do so again during SEA Thursday on Nov. 14.
She said she’s seen a lot of enthusiasm from students, and she believes the event will be exciting and will give women a chance to hear success stories and words of advice on what paths they can take.
Matamoros hopes the panel will encourage female students to pursue any career field, even those that are traditionally dominated by men.
“They might not have a role model to look up to,” said Matamoros. “So maybe going to this event will encourage these young women to step forward into a career path that best fits them.”
Graduate Assistant for Fraternity and Sorority Life in the Office of Student Activities Aly McKenna has been working with Amy Strachota, coordinator of employer relations in the Office of Career Development, to outreach to NSU’s sororities.
McKenna and Strachota are discussing going to the sorority chapters to make sure they know about the event. They have been giving out teaser flyers to the sororities as well. They’ve reached out to Delta Phi Epsilon, Phi Sigma Sigma, Sigma Delta Tau, and Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc., Zeta Phi Beta, and Alpha Kappa Alpha. She said a lot of sorority members have expressed interest in attending.
“They want to hear how these women got into their positions and into their roles and their work balance, too, because they think it’s really important to have a life outside of work so I know that’s going to be one of the key things they want to talk about,” McKenna said.
McKenna said she is looking forward to hearing from the panel.
“A lot of times, women don’t necessarily have the same opportunities as men and they feel as if they can’t hold these higher up positions or they can’t reach their full potential,” McKenna said. “I think these women coming in who hold such high positions really shows our women that, ‘Hey you can be a wonder woman and you can do the things that men can do and you can hold these top positions and you can make it as a woman.’”
Burns suggested students check out the panelists’ biographies on the event website as there will be a question and answer portion.
Attendees must RSVP at hireashark@nova.edu by Nov. 15 as space is limited to 60 seats for students and 20 for faculty, staff and organization members. For more information, visit nova.edu/career/wonderwomen.
