The 2009 National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (NCCWSL) is coming, and I wanted Student Advisory Council members to share their thoughts and advice about this event. Here’s what they shared:
Aeriel Anderson is a former 2007-08 AAUW Student Advisory Council member. Since serving as a student leader at NCCWSL last year, Anderson has not slowed down. “I have been pretty busy finishing my second year of graduate school, along with serving as a house director for a sorority at the University of Maryland, College Park,” she said. Anderson says she enjoys working with the members of the sorority because it gives her the opportunity to “work and live with amazing college women leaders everyday!”
When asked about what she learned and gained from her 2008 NCCWSL experience, Anderson is easily forthcoming, saying that at NCCWSL, “I networked with and met some incredible women professionals in the D.C.-metro area with whom I have kept in touch and now consider close mentors and friends.” She even credits the NCCWSL conference as the impetus or motivation for her master’s seminar paper, “Leadership Self-Efficacy for Asian Pacific American Women College Leaders.”
This year, continuing her involvement with AAUW and NCCWSL, Anderson is serving on the NCCWSL Conference Steering committee, serving as co-chair for hospitality and local arrangements. To future attendees she offers this advice: “Come with an open mind. Challenge yourself to meet new people. Be prepared to learn how to maximize your leadership.” And perhaps most importantly, “Have fun!”
Taqwaa F. Saleem is a member of this year’s Student Advisory Council and is from Savannah, Georgia. Actively working on her master’s thesis centered on the writings of famed author Toni Morrison, Saleem is excited to continue her work with AAUW at this year’s student leader conference.
What’s her motivation? Saleem credits a “constantly evolving” personal mission to help her women colleagues “find their voices and become involved in campus and community activities that empower and educate.”
As for what advice she has for conference newcomers like herself, Saleem is adamant about “keeping an open mind,” asking her fellow conference participants to “embrace the power ” of their voices to “enlarge the footprint women make in the world.”
Both of these remarkable women will be at NCCWSL this year! But we’d like to give other impressive women the same opportunity: Make sure to support the conference and send a student leader today!
This post was written by ReShai Tate, 2009 AAUW LTI and Communications Fellow.
