Six members of the Women in Nuclear chapter at Texas A&M University were recently selected to attend the annual Women In Nuclear (WIN) National Conference on a travel scholarship. It is the highest number of scholarship winners for the conference in the chapter’s history.
“The basis of the conference was a focus on fundamentals,” said Chapter President Jessica Taylor. “I had a great time just seeing all the professionals there. It was nice to see everyone get together and see people who don’t know each other talk about things that are going on in our field.”
The conference provided networking opportunities for the attendees and a look at professional development opportunities in the field of nuclear engineering.
“Because we were a part of this sponsorship they gave you a mentor and you get to talk to them and meet with them and see what others around the country are doing,” Taylor said. “There are some conferences I’ve gone to where it is just like being at a career fair and it’s intimidating, but at the WIN conference all these women and men act friendly towards you.”
Other delegates felt the ability to attend the conference on scholarship provided opportunities for them to not only network with industry leaders, but to gain some relative job related training. Graduate nuclear engineering student Kristina Spencer attended the conference for a third time and was in charge of one of the discussion sessions.
“This year we focused on building trust with the public at large through social media and we talked a lot about how you look at the message you are sending to your audience,” Spencer said. “It was a lot of work but I thought it went really well and it was good management training.”
The WIN chapter at Texas A&M is an organization dedicated to the service of others and to informing the public about nuclear energy. The organization is not exclusive to women, something the members feel is important in promoting good gender relations within the industry.
“Men and women have to learn how to work together and it’s a good overall experience for men to realize how many women are in the industry,” said senior nuclear engineering student Holly Parenica. “I think out of all the schools we had the largest student population. We’re really devoted and active in WIN and we’re really working to push it further and help it grow more.”
