Affinity Fair

This event was hosted by the coop office and took place the day before the RIT Career Fair. The Affinity Fair was a reverse job fair for co-op ready students. Potential employers talked with WIT students about Women in Technology and its mission. This was a great way to meet potential employers.
 

Company Visits

WIT hosted Toyota and Precision Castparts Corp. this past academic year. At both events, WIT students had an opportunity to meet one-on-one with representatives from the hiring companies.
 

Professional Women’s Networking Event

This gathering of professional women was sponsored in part by WIT, SWE and WOW (Women of Waste and Water). This off-campus meeting offered students an opportunity to network with professionals in a more casual environment. Although this event was geared toward civil and environmental professionals, many students soon learned that through networking other, not so obvious, contacts can be made!
 

WOW members meeting

The Women of Waste and Water offered to have their quarterly meeting at RIT so that students could have an opportunity to participate. The WOW organization is a group of professional women employed in the environmental industry, which provides a forum to network and exchange information on pure waters and other environmental issues.  WOW originated over 6 years ago when a small group of women from the Genesee Valley Chapter of the New York Water Environment Association wanted to explore the unique challenges for women in the water and wastewater fields.  WOW meets monthly at different locations throughout the Genesee Valley region (primarily around Rochester).  Most meetings involve either a visit to a facility of interest or an educational presentation on a topic of interest or current relevance.  The group currently has over 110 members, of which 13% are engineers, and 75% are in senior level positions with their current employer.  Great networking opportunity!

Thank you WOW!
 

Three Part Professional Skills Series

WE @ RIT, WIC and WIT offer collaborative programming where each group hosts a different professional enrichment event and students from all three groups are invited.
 

WE @ RIT hosted: Dress for Success

This is an annual event hosted by WE @ RIT. Building a wardrobe and looking professional were the focus of this fashion show style annual event hosted by WE @ RIT. Student models were given a variety of interview scenarios and were asked to dress appropriately with the help of a Dress Barn consultant. A MaryKay representative was also available to discuss looking polished without make-up being overdone.
 

WIC hosted: AN Interview Panel

WIC organized an interview panel with women from local companies giving tips on how to prepare for and have a successful interview.  Attending were: GCCIS alumna Juli Klie, CEO of InfoPreserve; Ewa Pigna, Principle Software Engineer from Lenel, a United Technologies company; and Triscia Buscemi, a corporate recruiter from Wegmans.
 

WIT hosted: Negotiating Skills

Women in Technology offered a Negotiating Skills Panel discussion in January. A panel of three professionals fielded questions about appropriate ways to ‘ask’ for more from an offer. Lynne Perry from Co-op office emceed this event. WIT was honored to have the following representatives donate their time to speak with our students:

Mona Carbonel ‘94; vice president and market development leader in the Government and Community Infrastructure Market; Clough Harbour & Associate           

Penny Szczepanski; Manager of Software & Hardware Controls Engineering; Gleason Works

Laurie Simonson; Human Resource Manager; Rochester Software Associates