Grace Hopper Celebration 2018

Last year, we were lucky to be selected by our university to attend the Grace Hopper celebration, which was held in Houston, Texas from September 26 - 28, 2018. Since we are starting this blog, we would like to share our experience attending the event. We will try our best to give you details of our experience (as far as we remember)

A little background: Grace Hopper was a computer scientist and a U.S. Navy Admiral ( The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica , 2019). Due to her contributions, the AnitaB. Org created the Grace Hopper Celebration to inspire women in computing and technologist.

Attending the Grace Hopper Celebration was good experience because it gave us a sense of belongingness. Before the event, we were asked to fix a schedule to determine which event swe will be attending during the conference. There were events that are mandatory to attend. There are different types of events: Hands-on workshop, talks, and others (we forgot the others). There were many workshops that are interesting, but there is a schedule conflict, so we had to pick one. Also, we needed to ensure that we will have enough time to be in the career fair. There was a workshop before the conference that was for us, first timers, were supposed to attend to give us tips and orientation about the event. However, we were not able to attend the event because we just arrived in Texas and there was not enough time for us to go. After arriving and settling in our hotel, we went to the venue and picked up our badges (We forgot the name of the building and cannot find my badge :(. We will update the blog once I find the information.) Make sure you don't lose your badges, they are apparently your ticket for the workshops and events.

Ms. Padmasree Warrio giving a speech during GHC 2018

On the very first day of our conference, we attended an Opening Keynote. The speakers were Padmasree Warrior, Jessica Matthews and others. Miss Padmasree Warrior, was a former CEO and she spoke about how we are on the move. She used the movement of technology as an analogy to explain how women are on the move. Her talk was really interesting and fun to hear. She even took a selfie with the attendees, who were raising their hands to show that they want to be part of the movement of women being in the tech field.

Ms. Jessica Matthews giving inspirational talk to attendees of GHC 2018

We also had an inspirational talk from Miss Jessica Matthews, who is a CEO and inventor. During her talk, she showcased her inventions such as the Socket and the Pulse. She demonstrated how the Pulse works by jumping on a rope (on HEELS) and putting the ends of the rope in a bulb shape container. Then, ta-da, there was light. It was such an amazing idea and according to her "15 minutes of jumping rope can give one hour of light". She also gave u s a background story of her and how she was able to get in her current position right now. Her talk really inspired us.

By the end of the opening keynote, the president of AnitaB.Org, Ms. Brenda Darden Wilkerson, shared to us that former President Barrack Obama was invited to be in the celebration, but was not able to attend. He gave us the organization a letter and was shared by Ms. Wilkerson. We don't remember most of the things that happened. You can watch the opening keynote event on YouTube to have get a fill experience of the event. Here is the link.

There were plenty of workshops at the conference, but we were not able to attend all of them because there were workshops and events that were overlapping. Also, we found out that by signing or fixing your schedule prior to the workshop, you have the priority to get first seats in the workshops. However, if you are late for 10 or 15 minutes, you will lose your priority. You can still attend workshops even though you did not signed up for them. Below are some of the workshops that we attended (We usually forgot to take pictures of the workshops). The keynote speaker was the wife of Mark Zuckerburg. Unfortunately, the seats were limited and we were not able to get inside.Also, there were certain times were we can get snacks on our way to another workshop.

In the workshops, they gave us resources that we can use to develop our knowledge in computing. Most of the workshops encourages collaboration and networking. The tables are usually setup on a round table that has at least 10 people. Thus, after the workshop, you may have met or networked with people in the industry or students from other universities in other countries. At the end of some workshops, they gave some of the materials.

The conference also had a Career Fair, which we can say was the biggest and fanciest career fair we have ever attended. Make sure you have a good resume and brush-up on your techie skills because when companies get interested in your resume, they will do an on-the-spot interview. Also, try to dress in business casual to get a good impression from them, but wear comfortable shoes because the place is huge and you also have to attend some workshops. Further, practice your elevator pitch because you need it to get the job interview.

It is good to give out your resumes to different companies and try to create different versions of your resume, for instance, one resume for data science or software or etc., It is better to attend the career fair on the first day because there were some perks that were gone on the second and third day of the conference. For instance, there was a company that gives a spit test kit (I know you know which company). We tried to apply on the last day and they told us that we could have applied on the first day because there were no more interview time. Moreover, there were limited spots for interviews in some companies, so it is better to go there in the first day. The benefit of going in the conference on the very last day and last minute was that some companies are freely giving away their giveaways or some souvenirs?

On the last day, we had our last event and check the video here. After the closing of the conference, we had a party. There were dancing free food, drinks, glow sticks and others. As mentioned before, attending GHC was good experience because it helped us to become more inspired, confident and it helped us in both our academic and professional career. We would definitely love to attend again. Thank you to our university for the experience.

References:

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Grace Hopper.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1 Jan. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Grace-Hopper.