Last Friday and Saturday, female students gathered at the Women in Technology conference to hear from alumni and industry professionals about their experience in the tech world as women.

Speakers at the event included 2011 graduate Kendall Lundschen, 2015 graduate Natalie Lemieux, Jeanette Schofield, software developer at WolfePak Software and Christy Thomas, general director of technology services at BNSF. Twenty-six of the 31 women in the School of Information Technology and Computing attended the conference.

Jenni Williams, enrollment and student development manager in the SITC, started ACU’s chapter of Women in Technology last fall as a means of boosting women’s interest in the SITC.

“Within STEM fields as a whole there is a shortage of females, so one of my initiatives is to help increase female enrollment within the SITC,” Williams said.

Williams said the event was two-fold because it created camaraderie among the different majors that attended the conference and allowed them to hear from women working in the technology industry. 

Alexandra Thomas, daughter of speaker Christy Thomas, assisted in coordinating the event. She said the gathering helped her gain insight into how she can prepare to enter the workforce and affirmed her belief that technology needs more women.

“Events like this are important because women are not encouraged by society to get involved with STEM fields,” said Alexandra, senior information systems major from Keller. “Technology needs more women because more diversity will only be beneficial, and that is what this conference is designed to do.”

The next Women in Technology luncheon is scheduled for Nov. 16. For information, Jenni Williams at jenni.williams@acu.edu.