Wait... Is ice cream for lunch bad?
[Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 57 seconds.]
Last week, the hubs and I had the privilege of being asked to talk to students at UCSB (University of California at Santa Barbara).
Team Beck presenting at UCSB!
Background
The hubs is an alum of the swim team and the computer science program. When we talked about the places we wanted to make more of an impact, we chose to focus on specific programs on women in computer science and the swim team, as a whole. We happen to partner with two fantastic leaders in both programs, who both happen to be women.
Both of the leaders we work with are pulled in multiple directions and do everything they can to improve the student experience. They are both scrappy and creative on how they can create a better experience for the students they serve.
Due to the constraints of working at a public university, they definitely have some constraints they have to work around. But they are always game for new ideas and approaches. That makes it fun.
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These students gave us some hope
Dealing with imposter syndrome
On our last visit, the bulk of our time was spent with the women in computer science (WiCS) program. That was 18+ months ago and the job market in tech was completely different than it is today. While we spent less time with WiCS this time around, we were able to attend a dinner where we learned about the problems these women wanted to solve.
It wasn’t AI for AI’s sake. One student discussed how they wanted to learn about patterns with neurological data and hormones, and how those play a role in causing migraines. Given I have many people in my life who suffer from those, that piqued my interest.
Spending some time with the students leading the WiCS program at UCSB with their professors.
WiCS now has a student-managed mentoring program that seamlessly passes on leadership from one graduating year to the next. We heard about some of the success stories such as:
How UCSB focus on recruiting women who want to study computer science but weren’t exposed to it in high school. They have peer mentoring groups that monitor key inflection points where students have been known to drop out and reinforce that they belong in WiCS with support.
Having a pathway for students to present their research at external conferences as undergraduates so they can build connections and network their way into opportunities.
One of the undergraduate students talked about how she presented her research at one of these conferences. She gave a speech around how she overcame imposter syndrome to understand that SHE BELONGED there.
It was truly inspiring. Given current events, it gave me some hope that these students can help undo the mess us older generations gave them.
How habits in college translate into post-college life
The majority of our time on this visit was with the swim team. The hubs and I co-presented, which is a first in our 21+ year relationship. And we didn’t kill each other! I kid, I kid. We had 2 presentations:
The entire swim team, including the coaches (~60 people)
The coaches and the captains (~8 people)
The coach told us she wanted them to understand how the work they are doing now as student-athletes will benefit them post-college.
We sent a survey out to the students to get a sense of what they wanted to hear from us. How does the 80% of practice and prep they spend today translate into the getting the most out of the 20% spent racing?
About 20 questions were submitted in advance of the session, most of which we expected. They were thoughtful and showed they cared about understanding about how good habits now will translate into job search activities. Eventually that job search will lead to them working and still leveraging those habits.
The topics convened around resumes, networking and interviewing. They continued to ask questions based on the material and wanted some follow-up sessions on a couple of topics. We’re taking that as a win.
We then spoke with the coaches and captains a couple of days later on leadership and how to handle different situations. We sent out a survey to the captains on what defined success for their terms. Their answers demonstrated how much they cared about the program, which set up a candid dialogue.
Wondering how you can change your mindset in spite of all of the crazy in your life?
What did I learn from meeting with the students, coaches and faculty?
As I said earlier, I left the WiCS dinner truly inspired by some of the problems these women are starting tackle. While they may be frustrated with what the issues they have been left with from previous generations, they are undeterred. They want to use technology for good.
The swim team has multiple Academic All-Americans and they have some rigorous majors based on the survey we sent out. We didn’t get a chance to spend much time on their school work on this trip, but we’d like to do so in the future. Carrying challenging coursework while doing swim activities 25-30 hours/week is a lot.
Both sets of students have tremendous ownership over the experience they want future UCSB Gauchos to have. Being at UCSB is a source of enormous pride for them. Some of that comes from the leadership and mentorship they are getting from coaches and faculty. But some of it definitely comes from within themselves.
Yes, we had ice cream for lunch one day
The hubs and I were able to get in some relaxation time in between the meetings on campus. We went on a morning hike and enjoyed the sunshine. Having McConnell’s for lunch made me happy. It was weird in that I instigated this food choice and not the hubs as he is the one with the sweet tooth. Anyhoo…. Hanging out at the Santa Barbara pier watching people enjoy themselves on the water made us smile.
Zero regrets of having McConnell’s for lunch
My takeaway from these past few days is not to despair. The kids have this.
Yes, some very shitty things are going on in the world right now. When something positive happens in your life, no matter how insignificant you may think it is, take the win.