On March 20th, a one of a kind event for the DePaul Prep community was held in Corboy Hall. A panel of successful women across a wide range of careers came together to form a panel. The entire student body was welcome to start their Wednesday by hearing these women give their perspective on what success and struggle has looked like for them as women in their respective fields.
Present at the panel were leaders from the DePaul Prep community such as President Mary Dempsey and Dr. Megan Stanton-Anderson, as well as other recognizable faces.
In addition to Dempsey and Dr. Stanton-Anderson, the panel included Chicago’s former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Cafe Tola founder Victoria Salamanca, Nike information security engineer Olivia Thompson, University of Michigan Medical School Dean Seetha Monrad, and Vice President at JP Morgan Carla Martinez.
This event was organized by a collaborative effort from four different DePaul Prep clubs: Young Women’s Leadership, Ignite Club, Women in STEM, and Big Sisters Club. Members of each club set up poster boards and displays highlighting their club’s mission and community for students to view before the panel began.
These four clubs focus on highlighting the contributions of young women, both in the DePaul Prep community and outside. Ignite Club, a civics leadership organization, focuses on empowering young women to become engaged members of their communities. Young Women’s Leadership encourages girls to show leadership in all aspects of their life. Women in STEM focuses on highlighting the achievements of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math, which are all traditionally male-dominated fields. Big Sisters Club aims to foster long-lasting female friendships in the DePaul Prep community.
Also available before the panel were refreshments supplied by female-owned businesses from the surrounding area, including empanadas from Cafe Tola, the founder of which was featured on the panel.
The panel was led by students who were members of the four clubs that organized the event. Sophomore Belen Salamanca, who helped organize the panel through Big Sisters Club, said that the panel was “amazing, with so many women coming from different backgrounds and struggles, but collectively choosing better.”
Each panel participant was asked to answer a few specific questions related to their careers and achievements, and later questions were left open-ended for any panel member to respond to.
The questions posed to the panel ranged from how and why they chose a certain career to what obstacles they had to overcome to get where they are today. Between discussions of balancing motherhood and a desire for advancement and the challenges faced specifically by women of color, the panel offered a diverse array of opinions on success and what it looks like.
In addition to discussing individual challenges and struggles, the panel also offered advice to the young women (and men) of the DePaul Prep community. One piece of advice, offered by Mayor Lightfoot, was to “not be afraid of failure, because you will always learn something from that failure.” Thompson also encouraged the audience to be curious but always confident in their work.
The panel also offered more career-specific advice to those looking to follow in the footsteps of the women in front of them. Dr. Monrad offered her experience in medical school, looking around classrooms to see 50/50 split of men and women, as encouragement for women looking towards a long-time male dominated career, while Thompson stressed the importance of being a strong writer and problem solver, regardless of what career path is being pursued. Dr. Monrad also encouraged students who might be considering medicine to seek out internships and research to make themselves stand out.
Salamanca commented on the struggles of opening her own business but said that it is “empowering to know we are doing something right,” when seeing the impact that business has on a community and its employees. Cafe Tola, which started as a small dream for Salamanca, a first-generation business owner, is now hugely successful, with several locations across the city.
Dr. Monrad emphasized the importance of not letting fear prevent accomplishment, encouraging listeners to open doors for themselves, since “down the road, anything is possible.” The opening of doors when it comes to careers was also mentioned by Dempsey, who told the audience to “say yes, go through that door, because you never know when doors will open for you, but go through them when they do.”
In her remarks, Dr. Stanton-Anderson mentioned how impactful it is to have good role models as a child. Many of her most impactful role models were women, especially women of color, and she says that they gave her the “aspirations to do my work in the way they did theirs.”
All of the women on the panel came from different backgrounds, and their end careers are diverse as well. However, one thing they have in common is that they are, as it would be defined by most, successful. The goal of the panel was to showcase “girls working hard, day after day to uplift and help each other excel,” says Belen Salamanca, and the women featured on the panel were examples of success in every walk of life. Ultimately, success looks different to everyone, but the women that attended this panel showcased a diverse group of successful women in connection with the DePaul Prep community.