Third Annual Women’s Leadership Conference Empowers Community

TJ Combs, Featured Writer

The third annual Women’s Leadership Conference (WLC), which aims to empower women, was held in Wilcox Hall on Wed., Mar. 22.

Dozens of students attended the conference to celebrate and inspire young women from all walks of life, take on leadership roles in their personal lives and careers, as well as promote charisma and strength in a female’s daily life.

“It’s beneficial for both men and women to come to this,” said the WLC’s Logistics Chair Alexis Neuville “People learn a lot from it. It’s almost a safe space for people to talk about these views that are a bit controversial or aren’t expressed as often, and this is place for those conversations”

The conference was split into two sessions, all of which focused on this year’s theme of “She Can. We Can. Know Your Worth.” A feminism and masculinity discussion was included and hosted by Alumni Hall RD Alyssa Caffarelli and discussion about the history of colored women and their progress was included as well and hosted by Graduate Assistants Imerlyn Ventura and Melissa Adolphe.

The event closed out with a message by Fran Pastore the CEO of the Women’s Business Development Council, which is Connecticut’s leading organization for championing female entrepreneurship.

“When women succeed, we all succeed,” said Pastore, who became the first in her family to attend college after going against her mother’s wishes to marry and settle down after school.

Pastore attended Pace’s NYC campus and quickly nabbed a job on Wall Street after. Only then did Pastore quit that dream job after repeated sexual harassment on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

This inspired the businesswoman to not only uproot and start over in Connecticut in a field that not only promoted opportunity for women, but she started her own company as a fine example.

“Don’t miss opportunities. What’s important is to look for women’s empowerment initiatives,” the 1984 alumna said. “Today women of all socioeconomic backgrounds and ages are hungry for knowledge and to make an impact in the world. [WLC] is an opportunity to be inspired, and how to apply [inspiration] to your life.”

With the event being it’s most successful to date, next year may have a lot to live up to.