Defining Success & Creating Your Own Momentum

Room: 174

In a capitalist society, compensation is often argued as one of the most important symbols of success, leading to intense competition among young professionals. For some, wealth is truly their definition of success and is what drives them every day. For others, however, there are many other factors that formulate their individual definition of success, such as emotional fulfillment, location, benefits, working hours, and the social impact of the work being done. This can make it hard to accept that your success can look different from that of society, or your friends and colleagues. This mentality forces many soon-to-be graduates to choose entry-level positions that are unsatisfying or to be overworked at the cost of their physical and emotional health. 


This panel will discuss aligning your career with your values, identifying your non-negotiables, and investing in strategic assets that will maximize your efficiency while at work. Panelists will also share how they identified their values to create their individual ideas of success, and how they worked towards reinventing themselves when their careers no longer aligned with their goals.


Intelligent Interning: Getting Your Foot in the Door and Keeping it There

Room:163

An internship can provide you with the opportunity of a new beginning; a way to establish yourself within an organization and showcase your abilities to leaders within your desired professional field. As an intern, you are provided with the resources needed to succeed, but it is ultimately up to you to make the most of your time there. While the company is evaluating you and your performance over just a few short months, it is also your time to evaluate the company as a possible employer for a second-year internship, or even a post-graduate position!

In Intelligent Interning: Getting Your Foot in the Door and Keeping it There, speakers who successfully converted their internships into full-time opportunities will discuss how you can distinguish yourself from the pack and how to discover and capitalize on opportunities. They will also touch upon their experiences while they were advancing in their positions after starting with entry-level roles at their companies.


The Truth Behind “Balance” is Integration

Room:168

Work-life balance is often discussed as if it is a perfect ratio of work to personal endeavors that will lead to the ultimate level of satisfaction. The reality is, there is no formula, technique, or plan that can yield this “perfect balance”. The term “balance” has a negative connotation around it that implies your work and personal life are constantly in competition for your limited amount of time and are disharmonious. 


In this panel, speakers will reveal the truth behind work-life integration; creating more synergy between all aspects of your life, including your work, to create harmony and avoid competition among the things that matter most. These women are here to show attendees that there is a way to have it all, just not all at once!


Navigating Workplace Politics

Room:162

Within organizations, hierarchy is almost inevitable, and there are times when no amount of diligence and natural ability can yield the results you are looking for. A less frequently discussed component of achieving professional goals is navigating through the shifting winds of office culture. Mastering office culture involves knowing what to say, when to say it, and who to say it to, all while building positive relationships with your peers, managers, mentors, and sponsors. Evoking humbleness and willingness to learn as a young professional through acknowledging what you don't know, is often as equally valuable as acknowledging what you do know. This is especially true when you are surrounded by those with years or even decades of more experience than you.


In Navigating Workplace Politics, panelists will discuss how to navigate and be conscious of the work culture around you, how to leverage relationships to advance in your career, and their experience on developing politically savvy methods to work their way to the top.


Beyond Data: The Backbone of Innovation & Decision Making

Room:165

According to the Economist, the world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data. There are 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created every day. The big question now is: how do individuals and corporations make use of this technological wealth? 


In Beyond Data: The Backbone of Innovation & Decision Making, panelists will showcase the real impacts that data and artificial intelligence can have on our lives and in organizations. Attendees will gain an understanding of the capabilities of data analytics and learn about the value that data can bring to businesses across many industries. Attendees will also learn how data drives innovation and decision-making processes to power the future of businesses. Attend this panel to explore what is possible when we go Beyond Data to drive real impact for our future!


Attendees will have the opportunity to network with our corporate sponsors and recruiters during the Career Reception.

There will also be a Women in Technology Presentation offered during this time presented by Nora Junaid for students who do not wish to participate in the Career Reception.

Women in Technology

Room:163

Nora’s talk aims to shed light on the underrepresentation of women in the technology realm. ​The stars of her discussion are the famous women at tech firms that have greatly impacted our everyday lives; from Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg to Uber's Susan Fowler and Yahoo's Marissa Mayer, she highlights individual stories as an eye-opening message to something the entire world must be aware of: women in tech need more support and empowerment.

Indeed, several women have played a marginal role in shaping many of today’s technologies, but still they are given a hard time in this male dominated realm. Firms need to appoint more women on their boards, venture capital firms need to hire more women partners, but most importantly women must themselves be the change advocates. They need to revolutionize against this unfair equation––a very much needed bold move for a world today that prides itself on radical changes.

Defining Success & Creating Your Own Momentum

ROOM: 174

In a capitalist society, compensation is often argued as one of the most important symbols of success, leading to intense competition among young professionals. For some, wealth is truly their definition of success and is what drives them every day. For others, however, there are many other factors that formulate their individual definition of success, such as emotional fulfillment, location, benefits, working hours, and the social impact of the work being done. This can make it hard to accept that your success can look different from that of society, or your friends and colleagues. This mentality forces many soon-to-be graduates to choose entry-level positions that are unsatisfying or to be overworked at the cost of their physical and emotional health. 


This panel will discuss aligning your career with your values, identifying your non-negotiables, and investing in strategic assets that will maximize your efficiency while at work. Panelists will also share how they identified their values to create their individual ideas of success, and how they worked towards reinventing themselves when their careers no longer aligned with their goals.


Business Without Borders

Room:165

We live in an era of viral globalization. As the world becomes more interconnected, professionals need to understand, accept, and learn how to work effectively and efficiently with people from various backgrounds. Companies across all industries such as finance, technology, healthcare, media, and entertainment are reliant on individuals with a healthy global perspective. 


In Business Without Borders, you will hear women who have traveled and studied around the world describe the benefits and challenges of international business and how their worldviews have changed along their journeys.


Corporate Confidence: Owning the Room and Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Room:163

Identifying your strengths can be difficult. Discussing your strengths with an expert in your industry while avoiding emitting overconfidence, or worse - cockiness is even more difficult. Women especially tend to avoid highlighting our unique accomplishments and qualities for fear of attention or negative labeling, or the fear that we do not deserve a seat at the table. 


In Corporate Confidence: Owning the Room & Overcoming Imposter Syndrome, industry leaders will discuss how to effectively and confidently highlight your standout qualities and your industry knowledge during interviews, networking, presentations, and other professional settings. Panelists will also discuss how to build confidence within your industry, and how to overcome Imposter Syndrome when opportunity knocks and you need to grab it.


Being the Only Woman in the Room

Room:168

Even with the great strides of women before us breaking traditional social boundaries, entering a professional environment is still a challenge for many women. Upon entering the business world, many of us will find ourselves being the only woman in a space. Especially when we are the only person of our race, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, or any other defining characteristics. Moments when you find yourself being the only woman in the room does not have to silence or impede you. Instead, it is an opportunity to provide a different perspective and build connections with others in the room. 

During this session, attendees will hear empowering stories from our panelists as they navigated the workplace as the only woman in the room and made their voices heard.


You Got the Offer, Now What?

Room:162

The idea of graduating without a job or not finding the perfect summer internship brings undeniable fear to any college student. This fear often makes us want to seize any opportunity that comes our way. However, if there was no surrounding pressure, would we really accept that first job or internship offer? Would we really say no to our dream company because we realize that it may not be the best fit for us, even if were are the best fit for them? 


Panelists on You Got the Offer, Now What? will advise attendees on how to capitalize on opportunities when the time and offer is right, how to weigh multiple considerations before accepting an offer, and how to say no to the wrong opportunities.


Women For UMass Amherst (WFUM) Presentation

Mission: Women for UMass Amherst (WFUM) is a network of alumnae that promotes the advancement of campus programs that provide access, support, and opportunity for UMass Amherst students, with preference to those projects that positively impact UMass Amherst women and their respective communities.

Luncheon Panel: Organizational Culture

Brought to you by united technologies

Organizational culture is defined as the values and beliefs that describe an organization's unique social and psychological environment. During the Luncheon Panel, speakers from United Technologies will discuss organizational culture within their company and how it has evolved over time. The panelists will share advice on how to gain an understanding of and how to navigate a company's culture as early as the interview stage. Audience members will hear how employees from different backgrounds within the same organization learn from each other and collaborate daily to achieve common goals.

The Isenberg Family Charitable Foundation Video Presentation

The Isenberg Family Foundation will continue to work in the spirit of Eugene Isenberg’s legacy supporting entrepreneurs, empowering underserved communities, and trying to provide equal access to opportunity to all people regardless of income level.

Guided Networking Luncheon

The Guided Networking Luncheon is a networking platform for the 7th Annual Women of Isenberg Conference. This luncheon will provide an opportunity for attendees, at their assigned tables, to network with corporate recruiters, representatives, panelists, and UMass Amherst alumni. The moderator will provide talking points to guide the conversation at your table.

Leveraging Your Personality

Hosted By: Michele Equale

Room:163

In Leveraging Your Personality, Michele Equale will help you recognize that in order to succeed, you have to grow on your strengths, target your weaknesses, feed on opportunities, and combat threats to your success. You will leave this workshop knowing that you can have it all, but not without building the proper tool kit and support systems, and knowing yourself first


Uncovering the Hidden Obstacles to Confidence: Body Image, Perfectionism, and Food Struggles

Hosted By: Tara Whitney

Room:168

Confidence. Something we all welcome more of and can’t have too much of.  We hear ways to build confidence, such as quiet our insecurities, take risks, ask for positive feedback, and surround ourselves with a supportive community. All great tactics, yet they don’t get at the underlying causes of why women are needing more confidence in the workplace to begin with. Consider some undeniable statistics around women’s health. 

  • From puberty to age 50, women are twice as likely as men to develop an anxiety disorder. 

  • 1 in 8 women experience depression in their lifetime. Twice the rate as men. 

  • Girls and women are 2.5 times more likely to develop an eating disorder. 

  • Women are more likely to experience burnout than men.

Happy thoughts and encouraging mentors aren’t enough to instill the confidence required to go after our dream job, speak in front of a large audience and share our creative ideas. Tara Whitney, CPA and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, will be sharing her personal struggles with body image, perfectionism and food as a college student and CPA to the trust and confidence she created for herself as she overcame these obstacles and created and grew several passion filled business. 

In this workshop, participants will gain an awareness of how these obstacles may be impacting their own confidence. They will also learn a practice of cultivating self trust so they have inner confidence no matter where they go. 


Discovering Your Inner Entrepreneur

Hosted By: Paula Gould

Room:162

This workshop will take a look at different types of entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs and how each is needed to bring great ideas to life. You’ll gain a better sense of your entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial traits, how to leverage them and how they shift over time while remaining equally valuable to the success of a business or project’s growth. We’ll also cover how each contributes to go-to-market, fundraising and career path choices.


Transformational Leadership & Workplace Bias

Hosted By: Alaina Macaulay

Room:174

Bias training is a positive step towards addressing and recognizing the unconscious influences that alter the environment and the decisions that affect the workplace. In this workshop, attendees will learn to heighten their awareness and identify their own biases. Through discussion and role play exercises, attendees will harness their leadership skills and develop methods to empower themselves and others in their professional and personal lives.


Colorology & Business Etiquette

Hosted By: Melissa Baker

Room:165

Have you ever wanted to know how the clothes you wear and the colors you choose impact the message you convey to others about your personal brand? Do you want insight into making an excellent first impression and working the room for your professional development advantage?

In this workshop, attendees will also learn about the psychology of color and how to use colors to your advantage to make yourself more marketable to recruiters and professionals. As well as, gain insight into how confidence, body language, handshakes, have significant psychological influences on the impressions you make.