In honor of #nationalwomensday, I would like to share an initiative I've been working on for over a year now: Re-sonate.
Halfway through fall semester, freshman year, a friend of mine introduced me to a peer as "the girl who always asks questions in Yerraballi's class." If you've had a class with me, you definitely know this statement to be true. However, it brought something off-putting to my attention: I was the *only* girl who asked questions in class.
That same year, I enrolled in two challenging pilot programs the department offered. I was one of 4 girls in either class. When I asked my peers how they decided whether or not to take the class, often the men chose to sign up because it “increased their chances of getting an internship” and the women chose not to because they were “afraid it would be a workload they couldn’t handle.”
During my first experience in the industry, I noticed a commonality between the few, phenomenal women at the company: they were all extremely driven and headstrong go-getters. On the flip side, a wide variety of male employees existed, each with a unique personality.
This poses an issue as breakthroughs require the constructive clash of diverse perspectives: views of people with different backgrounds, experiences, and personalities. NCWIT reports that women account for a mere 25% of tech employees, over half of whom are white females. Studies find that women are leaving their tech careers at a rate of 56%, over twice that of their male counterparts.
HALF of our society is being left out of the conversation, and it is about time we did something about it.
Re-sonate strives to empower collegiate women to take charge of their futures, to be active participants in their education, and to take risks. In other words, to be trailblazers.
Our first initiative is the Re-sonate Convention, a day long affair centered around professional and technical skill development. We are honored to be joined by the CEO of Wings for Growth, Varsha Waishampayan and Professor Brian Rogers of NYU who will lead the Leadership Seminar. Additionally, we are thrilled that representatives of Google and Arm will help guide events throughout the day. Learn more about the convention on our website, re-sonate.wixsite.com/tech and be sure to register - seats are filling up!
To all my women, take this day to celebrate who you are and the value you bring. And to all of you amazing people in my life, I encourage you to follow your passions. Take action. Be bold. Let your voice Re-sonate.
Sanika Phanse, ECE Sophomore
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