On October 2nd, faculty member Donna Eilberg and four students from GUTS (Girls Understanding Their Strengths), Hill’s club for female empowerment, traveled to the Philadelphia Convention Hall and Civic Center for the 16th annual Pennsylvania Conference for Women. The event included keynote speakers, breakout sessions, author signings, small roundtable discussions, and career summits. Over 10,000 women from the area attended the conference “hoping to learn something new, be inspired, and better themselves,” said Cassidy Beeding ’21.
Fifth formers Bella Basile, Raina Shah, Tess McArdle, and Beeding felt very lucky that they were able to attend and experience the unique atmosphere.
“I had never been to something so empowering and positive. The environment was uplifting and moving,” Basile said.
The day started off featuring many speakers including Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and author James Clear who wrote the New York Times best-selling book, Atomic Habits. Clear entertained the audience with a personal anecdote in which he shared his struggles after receiving a traumatic brain injury. He then went on to talk about the importance of decision making and the weight that small habits can have on improvement.
In the afternoon, the students had a chance to listen to an interview with Academy Award nominee and Emmy winner, Ava DuVernay and a speech from Elizbeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love. Both successful women shared their stories of how they struggled with the start of their careers and what helped them to persevere. Gilbert emphasized the act of not caring and how taking the time to determine what and who truly matters to an individual will make life less stressful and draining. DuVernay gave the audience insight into being a colored woman in a Caucasian-male-dominated business.
Along with the keynotes, over 22 breakout sessions were held with different speakers in more intimate environments. Hill students attended a personal development session called “Harness Resilience to Catapult Yourself Forward” featuring best-selling author Anne Grady. Grady shared her story along with advice to the audience on how to identify triggers, manage self-defeating habits, and take advantage of risk to get stronger. The second break out session was a career advancement seminar named “Brave, Not Perfect” delivered by Reshma Saujani, the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code. Saujani shared her insights regarding how the aim for perfection should be changed into the aim for bravery.
“We felt very empowered after spending the day listening to all these speeches from successful people and we are excited to bring back what we learned to GUTS and Hill as a whole,” McArdle ‘21 said. “We also hope to include these lessons and topics in future club discussions to give insight to the girls who were unable to attend. The Pennsylvania Conference for Women was definitely an experience the GUTS girls will never forget.”