Spending three days with 15,000 women in computing can be an empowering experience. Keyonna Brown, a junior in computer and information technology, has done it twice.
As a two-time student attendee at the annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC), Brown gained confidence in herself and her future in computing.
“The conference gave me the feeling that ‘hey, you’re not alone,’” Brown said. “I saw there are other people who felt intimidated, and they’ve gone on to do really great things. It gave me confidence to talk to recruiters.”
The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is the world's largest gathering of women technologists. Purdue Polytechnic computing students have been attending the conference for the last five years. It was held in Houston in 2015 and 2016.
Brown found each year beneficial in different ways. Because 2015 was her first conference, she spent a lot of time at the career fair and participating in coding challenges.
“There are hundreds of companies at the career fair. You take your resume and go to work, and you get so much exposure. Six hours goes so fast when you are networking,” she said.
While she had already contacted Cisco prior to the conference about a possible internship, she was able to connect with the company at GHC as well. A week later, she was offered a summer internship. Brown spent the summer of 2016 as a penetration tester for Cisco in Chicago, testing their web and mobile applications for vulnerabilities. She will join the company again in 2017 as a security consultant in their Research Triangle Park facilities in North Carolina.
Because she already had an internship lined up this year, Brown used her time at the conference to learn from the hundreds of presentations. She especially enjoyed the keynote presentations featuring industry heavy-hitters such as Megan Smith, United States chief technology officer in the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
She also learned a lot from the seminar titled “So You Want to Hack The Planet: Demystifying Careers and Opportunities in Cryptography, Security & Privacy,” which complemented her career goals.
Brown was able to attend the 2016 conference because of a USAA scholarship offered to Purdue computer and information technology students program. She was one of 13 CIT students in attendance in 2016.