Student Organizes International Women’s Day Conference

Veronica Owusu, a Business student on the NOVA Alexandria campus, and an international exchange participant from Ghana in the Community College Initiative (CCI) program, organized a conference in honor of International Women’s Day and held Friday, March 6, 2020.

Veronica compiled a team of 6 other NOVA students to assist, and brought in 6 speakers for the event, 3 speakers being NOVA faculty and staff: Associate Professor Zulma Westney (AN), Coordinator of the Technology Innovation in Learning and Teaching (TILT) office Kirstin Riddick (AL), and Jean H Braden, Center for Women, Gender, and Social Equity coordinator Noemi Rosado-Roman (AL). Three speakers were from the local surrounding community: Vicki Warker, Chief Marketing Officer at Savi Technology, Karen Bate, founder of KB Concepts P.R. and Co-Founder and Chief Inspirational Officer of Awesome Women Entrepreneur, and Irma Nugrahanti, CCI Program Alumna and Budget Liaison and Project Mobilization Manager Fellow at CARE International. Each speaker focused on an aspect of her journey of professional development and work toward gender equality in their own lives.

It was a very motivational and inspirational morning! About 60+ NOVA Faculty, staff, students, and local community members attended the conference. Veronica worked closely with the NOVA Alexandria Office of Student Life, the Jean H. Braden Center, and the CCI Program to make this event a success. The Alexandria Man Up Mentoring program also assisted to make this a great day for the attendees: coordinating the lunch set up and handing out flowers to all who gathered for the lunch post-conference. This was the second annual International Women’s Day Conference organized by NOVA students held on the Alexandria campus. The first conference was held last year, March 8, 2019, and was organized by NOVA Business student and CCI Participant from the Dominican Republic, Marlin Estévez.