Inspiration For A Generation

On the evening of Tuesday, March 29, student-athletes, traditional students, and some of the broader community gathered in Glazer Auditorium for Maryland's first-ever "Women In The Workforce" event.

The program began with a 30-minute networking opportunity with food and light refreshments. Everyone in attendance had a chance to engage with one another and the four panelists before the discussion. Then two female student-athletes, track & field's Jaiden Ritter and women's soccer's Catherine DeRosa, moderated the panel, creating a list of questions they wanted to ask the panelists along with questions that attendees got to submit before the event. 

The four panelists were Seun Awotunde (a law clerk at Ropes & Gray LLP), Maryland's Deputy AD Colleen Sorem, Gail Miller-Myers (Vice President of Customer Success at Dizzion), and Maryland's Director of the University career center Allynn Powell. The four accomplished women answered questions and discussed how to thrive as a woman in the workforce and how they balanced work with various desires to have families.

For the Maryland Made people involved, who worked to put the event together, the program was a roaring success.

"Some of the big takeaways were finding purpose in your life and building your career around that," Assistant AD of Student-Development Resa Lovelace said. "Don't be afraid to ask questions during the interview process that might affect your future life like, 'What is the policy around maternity/paternity leave? What have other women in the company faced during motherhood?' We also heard the panelists talk about diversifying their mentors and showing up as your authentic self."

Lovelace saw the immense benefits of other targeted panels on Maryland student-athletes and the broader community. As a result, an event like Tuesday's became a no-brainer. 

"A year ago, we started the Black Voices in Career Readiness and saw the effect it had on our Black student-athletes," Lovelace said. "With such great attendance, questions, and conversations at that program, it made me realize that we need to be doing identity-based programs for more communities represented throughout the student-athlete body. 

"Hosting Women in the Workplace in the 50th year of Title IX just feels even more special. The opportunity to have four panelists sharing how they got into their careers, while also representing different backgrounds, identities, ages, and family structures, for our current student-athletes who are trying to make major decisions for their futures just seems so important."

In conjunction with the event, Lovelace hosted a Maryland Made podcast with Maryland women's basketball legend Christy Winters-Scott that went live on Monday, titled "Women Can Have It All." 

In the episode, Winters-Scott detailed the choices she had to make to prioritize work and family at different points in her career and how she has ultimately experienced immense success. 

"The podcast was a kick start to this panel discussion," Lovelace said. "Christy is a phenomenal woman in a high demanding career. She has found purpose through her faith and family and designed her life around that. She spoke on a lot of great things from motherhood, to the chosen career and pivoting careers too. I hope that folks listen to this before and after the panel and can live on moving forward."

As the podcast wound down, Winters-Scott offered a strong statement of encouragement to all women attempting to navigate the workforce—a sentiment heavily reflected by the panelists' answers at the event.

"Stay true to what you want out of life," Winters-Scott said. "Have no regrets. Stay true to yourself. Stay confident. Trust your instincts and your heart when it comes to those big decisions.

"Have faith in everything you're doing and in how hard you're doing it. The grind of it, the trench work, how everyday you get 1% better in some way. If you challenge yourself mentally to be better everyday, then ultimately you're going to be an extreme, iconic, epically successful young woman who's a leader."