In recognition of International Women’s Day, the BCIT Student Association hosted a panel of five women who spoke about their unique experiences working in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). Leading the esteemed panel was Dr. Bethany Edmunds, Associate Dean of Computing at BCIT.
Featured on the panel was Dani Ferenc (Director of Operations at Metro 49 Construction Ltd.), Leigh Wall (Student Recruitment Specialist at Vancouver Community College), Cleopatra Perez (Senior Procurement Specialist at Seaspan Corporation), Nadia Dobrianskaia (Solutions Engineer at Samba Technologies), and Asifa Samji (Vice President at Stantec).
Dr. Edmunds opened the panel by expressing, “you are not what other people think of you, you are who you want to be, and how you want to put yourself forward.” The panel’s discussion included conversations around the importance of mentorship, the role of post-secondary institutes in leading gender diversity, and changes that are happening in the work place around gender diversity.
“There’s a lot of stigma for tradeswomen that you’re a tomboy or you’re rough around the edges and that’s just not true. You could be a women who paints her nails and wears skirts and works in construction. We need to be those women so that younger women can see that their options are limitless,” said Leigh Wall.
Watch the full Facebook Live video here.
