Young Women's Alliance Blog

Shared by Kate Stoker

The Texas Conference for Women is coming to the Austin Convention Center this fall, and YWA is attending!

For those of you that anxiously look forward to the Young Women’s Alliance General Meetings (that’s all of you right?), read Forbes Woman on a daily basis, smile at inspirational quotes that show up on your facebook news feed, and hang on the words of your mentors and women leaders in Austin, this is the next thing for you.  Join YWA in attending the Texas Conference for Women, October 24^th at the Austin Convention Center!

Here is what’s store for you:

Keynote speaker presentation by Brene Brown, whose TED talk on the Power of Vulnerability went viral about a year ago.  It explores the idea of developing deeper relationships and harness greater power by taking your walls down.

Keynote speaker presentation by Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project. For those of you that haven’t read it,  it’s a yearlong experiment in making changes to your home, relationships, and routine that give your life more room to focus on what matters. (I loved it and highly recommend it!)

Additional breakout sessions are being announced as well – everything from investment strategies for women to negotiation tactics that help you manage conflicts, your salary, and your career.

There is something to be said for having opportunities come your way, people talk about someone who has had everything come their way, and that luck is what has gotten them to where they are in life and in their career.  My thoughts are, if opportunity knocks and you’re not prepared what happens?  This conference will give you the opportunity to develop skills, build relationships and network, and explore issues facing strong professional women in their everyday life.

Early bird tickets are priced at $125 until Thursday, May 24th.  Register online and RSVP to the event page on the YWA calendar so we can coordinate with other members.

Shared by Kathryn Freeman

Jenna Goudrea, Forbes Staff writer, shares the following most important 10 things she has learned while working in her 20’s.

1) Pick something you will enjoy and excel in it.

2) Gain the boss’s trust by mastering the little stuff.

For the remaining ten, read her post available here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2012/05/17/the-10-most-important-things-ive-learned-about-working-in-my-20s/.

Sound familiar? We may hear these tidbits of wisdom often, but take a few minutes to read her explanations, and then re-read them tomorrow. And continue to read these until they start to sink in to your everyday thinking…

After all, remember ”whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it…Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it”- Goethe.

Shared by Amelia Whitman, Higher Education Scholarships Chair

I am a graduate student at UT, pursuing Master’s degrees in both
Business Administration and Public Affairs. I plan to work in
education reform after completing my graduate studies.

 

I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio with my 7 (yep, seven!) brothers and sisters. Both of my parents are educators so I attribute my passion for the field to them. I earned my undergraduate degree from Scripps College and then went to work for Scripps full time as an Admission Counselor. I later moved to Austin to take a job at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School where I worked for several years as a college counselor.

 

I definitely caught the Austin bug and was eager to become a Longhorn officially when I started considering graduate school. I have had an amazing two years at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the McCombs School of Business and am looking forward to my third and final year of the dual degree program.

I will be serving two related organizations for my Impact Project next
year. The first is Board Fellows, a student organization at McCombs
that places MBA students on nonprofit boards in the Austin community. Students serve as nonvoting board members for one year and complete a business-related project for the organization. Board Fellows is in its third year at McCombs. As a current Co-President, I am developing a plan to promote the sustainability of the organization, with a particular focus on succession planning.

 

Through Board Fellows, I am delighted to be serving Latinitas, a nonprofit that empowers young Latinas through media and technology. Latinitas provides a range of programs including an online magazine, after-school clubs, summer camps, and technology workshops that engage and educate the girls they serve. I will be helping Latinitas to strengthen its grant-writing strategy. Over the coming months I will analyze past grant applications and produce a targeted grant-writing “tool-kit” to empower Latinitas’ growth. I will present my findings at the organization’s board retreat next January.

I am very appreciative of the scholarship provided by the Young
Women’s Alliance Foundation and am excited to share that gift through my Impact project!

Shared by Brittany Philmon

Purposefairy.com, a personal growth blog, shares the following 15 things “you should give up to be happy”. I can personally vouch that as a planner, some of these are certainly stress inducers for me (need to be right, to have control, and a few others that I may not be quite so easily persuaded to admit)- how about for you?

Dana, creater and publisher of Purposefairy.com, shares the following:

1) Give up your need to always be right.

2) Give up your need for control.

3) Give up on blame.

4) Give up on self-defeating self-talk.

5) Give up on your limiting beliefs.

To read the full 15, visit Dana’s blog post here http://www.purposefairy.com/3308/15-things-you-should-give-up-in-order-to-be-happy/.

For young professional women, these hit home. It can be quite easy to limit ourselves because we simply don’t believe we can do something (next step in the job promotion, taking on that high-profile case at work, being responsible for a new project, having a child) and with that doubt in ourselves we can back it up by telling ourselves we just can’t do it. We’re not up to it. We’re not smart enough. We’re not ready. We’re not prepared for such a responsibility. We don’t want to look stupid, unprepared, unreliable. We don’t want to let others down.

I myself have these worries, and I would bet each of us does in some form or fashion. After all, it is somewhat of human nature. However, ridding ourselves of these doubts, hang ups, insecurities, frustrations, and stress inducers can truly help us become happier, healthier, and more successful women.

Take a few minutes to apply these 15 ideas to your life, and be happier!

The Young Women’s Alliance has chosen member Hanna Arbogast, Social Media Chair on the Marketing Committee, as Member of the Month- congratulations Hanna!

To get to know Hanna a bit more, we supplied her with a session of “mad libs” style questions- read her responses below!

1) The BEST feature of serving as a Marketing Committee member for YWA is ___.  

Hanna: learning to expand my skills beyond my job and creating awareness of YWA/F’s programs within the Austin community

2) I’d addicted to the TV shows _______ and/or book series ______.

Hanna: Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, and I love reading Jane Austen

3) My favorite class in college was ______  because ______.

Hanna: Advertising because it taught me to take my skills as an artist and expand them into the field of business

4) Growing up, my dream job was ______.

Hanna: A school teacher

5) The BEST attribute to YWA general meetings, in addition to our awesome speakers, is:

a: Friends

b: Food

c: Wine

d: All of the above

Hanna: D- All of the above- plus getting to meet new members!

Thanks Hanna and congratulations! To know more about Hanna, read her bio on the YWA website here http://www.youngwomensalliance.org/en/cms/2236/  AND come say hi to her at the Membership Appreciation Party TONIGHT!

More information regarding tonight’s FREE (for YWA members) party is available at our website youngwomensalliance.org!