Row New York Juniors Join Maverick Capital Foundation for Professional Women’s Dinner

On Thursday, March 13, juniors from the Manhattan and Queens girls’ varsity teams headed to Fifth Avenue for the fourth annual Professional Women’s Dinner hosted by Mali Locke at Maverick Capital Foundation. There, they were inspired and encouraged by a dozen influential women representing a variety of industries

The Guest List

 

Let’s Get Real About Resumes

After a brief introduction, the room buzzed as trios of two students and one guest speaker gathered to review resumes, give feedback, and deeply analyze potential career paths. The substantive and candid discussions that followed provided the juniors with encouraging and important advice.

“Every time I thought a door was closing, I always ended up on a path that took me somewhere awesome.” – Erika Long.

“If you’re ever asked to step up to an opportunity that you may think you’re not qualified for, go for it because someone believes that you can do the job. Trust yourself and take the plunge.” – Laura Sakevich.

Embracing Leadership

Following these intimate sessions, students and guests considered positive and negative representations of working women.  They referenced the #banbossy movement: Why are women called “bossy” and boys labeled “leaders” when describing their assertive behavior? Guest speakers encouraged the teens to embrace leadership and be comfortable presenting their opinions, even in disagreement.

They also cautioned students to be mindful of their language when describing other women.  Are you able to compliment a colleague on her outfit and her ability to lead?

How to Interview and What to Wear

Guests gave students a checklist for preparing for interviews:

Prepare: Know what the company does. If you don’t know what to wear, wear a suit. Wear something that makes you feel strong and confident.

Present yourself in the ‘I’ instead of the ‘we’ — don’t be modest.

Be engaged and excited to be there.

Think before you speak. If you don’t know the answer to a question, pause, think, then speak.

Know your strengths and believe them.

Ask yourself if you want to work there. Is this a good cultural fit?

 
What To Do When Your Harshest Critic is Yourself

The conversation got personal when speakers asked students if they were hypercritical of themselves and what they did with that information.  How do you redirect those thoughts/energy?

Junior rower Lauren Michelson described how she confronts self-criticism. “I think about what a Row New York alumna Monique Carter once told me during an erg piece: ‘Your body can do anything. All you have to do is ask.’” These words had staying power for Lauren and she knows the importance of surrounding herself with inspiring people.

“I write [the problem] out and review the steps. I ask myself, ‘Why did that go wrong?’” – Emlyn Knox

“I put things into perspective. We all have bad days but it doesn’t mean mine was any worse than yours.” – Nicole Doyle

“I try to learn more about what happened [physiologically], so once I watched a documentary on how the brain works.” – Emma Parsons

Four Years of Foundations

The Professional Women’s Dinner is one of our favorite traditions. A big thank you to our host, Mali Locke, the Maverick Capital Foundation, and all the guest speakers for hosting our juniors and, for the fourth year in a row, giving Row New Yorkers the tools to advance one step closer to their goals.

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