Student group hosts first women’s summit

Five Hopkins-affiliated female leaders spoke about their experiences as students and in the workplace at the inaugural Summit for Emerging Women Leaders held on Saturday in Charles Commons. The event was organized by the Women’s Initiative for Social Equity (WISE).

The summit’s keynote speaker was Renee Chenault-Fattah ’79, a news anchor for NBC 10 News in Philadelphia. Chenault-Fattah, who serves on the Board of Trustees and worked as a lawyer before becoming a broadcast journalist, spoke about the qualities that women need to be successful.

“[She] revealed to us that the question we should be answering is not, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up,’ but rather, ‘what type of woman do we want to be when we grow up?’ founding WISE board member Janice Bonsu wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “I realized [from her speech] if I follow my instincts and try to find a career that allows me to be the kind of woman I want to be, I will be happy.”

The summit started off with a speech from Joanne Rosen, the wife of President Ronald J. Daniels, who spoke about her career as an associate lecturer in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Rosen also touched upon the history and struggle of women at the Homewood Campus, which saw its first female undergraduates in 1970.

Mindy Farber ’74, one of the women in the first co-ed undergraduate class at Hopkins and the founder of her own Washington, D.C. law firm, shared anecdotes from her undergraduate days. Several other women from her undergraduate class, who called themselves “the pioneering women,” were also in attendance. “She had so much energy and was so spunky and fun,” Adelaide Morphett said in an interview with The News-Letter.

“It was incredible to see her up there and everyone could really feel the power of what she was saying.”

Farber’s stories about attending Hopkins spoke of a time when there were no women’s restrooms on the engineering quad and the only women’s athletic programs were cheerleading for lacrosse and cheerleading for football.

“She brought tears to my eyes as she reminisced with the room about struggling when she first came to Hopkins,” Bonsu wrote.

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, a graduate of the Writing Seminars masters program and a member of the Board of Trustees, also gave a speech about her career as a journalist, novelist and short story writer.

Following Leedom-Ackerman, Sarah Hemminger, who holds a PhD in biomedical engineering from the Whiting School of Engineering, spoke about her own career path. Hemminger co-founded the Incentive Mentoring Program, which matches underperforming high school students with volunteers who help them stay on track.

Before lunch, the approximately 60 attendees were matched with alumnae, faculty and WISE Board members to discuss issues that working women face, including wage gaps, succeeding in male-dominated fields and balancing work with family.

Freshman Sara Jones said she enjoyed speaking with alumnae and learning about how they made their mark on the University.

“[Hopkins] women have come a long way, and more events [like this] will help us go even further,” Jones said.

The WISE Board, which was founded in the fall and consists of eight undergraduates from all four classes, planned the summit as their first major event.

“We [want to] create a network of women who are interested in being a leader and who are interested in women’s rights and equality,” Morphett said. “It’s surprising that there wasn’t some sort of body like this before now.”

Bonsu, who originally conceived the idea of starting the group, noted having received her inspiration from author and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sharyl Sandberg.

“This summer, I read the book Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg and was so inspired that I came back to campus looking to encourage others to move and act!” Bonsu wrote.

In addition to expanding the summit next year, the WISE Board hopes to host a speaker series in the fall. The board will also host a meet-and-greet event on March 31 for interested students to learn more about WISE.

“A lot of people asked how they could get more involved [with WISE] so we thought this would be a good opportunity to act as a follow-up to the conference and also to get more ideas,” Morphett said.

Bonsu said that she hopes WISE will help create more opportunities.

“We also want to work to extend our reach out of our immediate campus in changing the lives of ladies in high school,” she wrote.