Programming
Penn Arts & Sciences’ Professional Women’s Alliance (PWA) holds a variety of events, both live and virtual, throughout the year for young alumnae and students.
Young Alumnae Programs
PWA hosts a variety of professional development events in New York City and virtually. All in-person events have a career networking component, often a starting point for building mentoring relationships that last long beyond the events.
Panel Discussions
Panel discussions feature accomplished professionals sharing their career paths, insights and advice followed by networking to give young alumnae an opportunity to continue the conversation with PWA members and other senior leaders in smaller groups. Examples include, What I Know Now that I Wish I Knew Then and Navigating the Career Labyrinth.
Networking
While all events include a career networking component, PWA also hosts events solely for career networking to provide a forum for young alumnae to connect with the PWA members and hear about their career paths, often a starting point for building mentoring relationships that last long beyond the event ends.
Enrichment
Enrichment events feature experts on specific topic. Examples include Making Behavior Change Stick presented by Penn Professor Angela Duckworth, and Mind Full to Mindful presented by Dr. Michael Baime, Founder and Director of the Penn Program for Mindfulness.
Student Programs
PWA hosts its own events, and supports other programs on campus and in the workplace, that give students opportunities to build relationships with alumnae and learn about the variety of career paths possible with a liberal arts education.
Career Roundtables
Each semester, PWA hosts a career roundtables event to provide an opportunity for students to learn about the wide variety of careers paths possible with a liberal arts degree and build their network. Alumni explain “a day in the life,” sharing insights on what skills are important in their field, advice they’d give their younger selves, and more.
Advising and Exploration
PWA’s network also supports other programs on campus including the College Alumni Mentoring Series (CAMS) which hosts mentoring meals and themed panels, Discovery Days career exploration program which allows students to shadow an alum for the day, and other career mentoring events. They also make themselves available to provide career advice, informational interviews, and resume reviews.
“It’s so important to pay it forward, to look out for each other, and to help each other. Having a network of women that I can reach out to across industries is really special and incredibly valuable.”