HC: We just saw the 2nd Annual UNCW Women’s Conference. What inspired you to hold the conference for the first time last year?
KV: Our amazing colleague in the CARE Office, Adam Hall, has been working with the men’s summit for several years. In 2014, the men’s summit celebrated its 10th anniversary! When we realized that, we asked ourselves why there wasn’t a women’s conference as well. Since I have been at UNCW, I have seen the women on our campus do some amazing things. They are passionate, driven, and engaged and we wanted to have the opportunity to create a safe space for women to connect and discuss the issues that directly affect them on a daily basis. We started reaching out to other offices on our campus and everyone was really excited about the idea, so we developed a committee (The list of sponsors is on our website.) that has been working together to plan the conference for the past 2 years.
HC: What was the biggest change you saw in the conference between this year and last?
KV: The biggest change was the number of people that attended the conference. Last year we had about 46 students at the conference. This year we had close to 70 students participate. It has been amazing to see it grow and it is our hope that it will continue to grow next year to 100 participants.
HC: How did you determine who would speak at the sessions in the conference?
KV: The committee originally spoke with a group of students and asked about the sessions that students would like to see at a women’s conference. The committee took that list of suggestions and developed topic areas (career skills, life skills, feminism and political issues, empowerment, and women’s health) and outcomes (gain a greater sense of self-understanding, enhance feelings of engagement, belonging, and empowerment, create a stronger community among UNCW women, gain knowledge and skills for personal and professional growth, learn to appreciate individual, group, and cultural similarities and differences, increase knowledge of and connection to campus and community resources). We then put out a call to the campus and community asking for program proposals. We received 17 proposals and a sub-committee chose the 12 best sessions for the conference based on the topic areas and outcomes. As for the keynote speaker, Melissa Jordan, we were extremely fortunate to have a committee member that was friends with her. After seeing her bio and learning more about the amazing work she had done, we asked her if she would be kind enough to donate her time to the conference. We were very lucky that she agreed to help! We were also lucky to have Patricia Leonard, the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, agree to speak. Her experience as a woman in a very important leadership role is very inspiring to the women on our campus.
HC: If someone reading this wanted to progress toward being the type of lady invited to speak at conferences, what advice would you give her?
KV: Find your passion and create an interactive and inspiring way to teach others about that passion. Reach out to a mentor, keep learning and growing, and of course surround yourself with supportive women.
HC: Do you have anything special in the works for next year’s conference?
KV: We have some ideas but we won’t finalize those until the end of this semester. We are always looking for student input so if a student has some ideas and is interested in joining our committee, please reach out to me and let me know!
HC: What is the best way to get in contact with you about the conference or your work at the CARE Center?
KV: Email at vancek@uncw.edu, or call at 910-962-7514.