LONG BEACH - The 13th annual Women & Careers Conference at Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) will be held March 11 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the ballrooms of the campus' University Student Union (USU).Seven successful professional women with a variety of different university degrees and from sometimes seemingly unrelated career choices will participate in a moderated panel presentation between 9 a.m. and noon. They will share stories of their successes and challenges, their inspirations and aspirations, their decision-making process, their support systems - their paths to their careers. Students and other attendees will have opportunities to ask questions, meet successful professional women, and meet other students with similar goals and aspirations. They will have an opportunity to clarify their own ideas and concerns and examine aspects of careers they may wish to incorporate into their own future - or avoid. "The core of the program is for students to hear successful women talk about the various factors involved in the decisions they have made about their careers," said Jeane Caveness, assistant dean of students and Women & Careers Conference coordinator. "It tends to bring in issues such as life/work balance, mentoring, and benefits negotiation, thus providing students with new ways of looking at their options." Following the panel presentation, attendees are invited to stay for a 30-minute roundtable with the panelists, previous panelists and professional women. The program closes with participants writing letters of intent to themselves, which will be mailed to them a month after the conference. The conference also provides resources for further exploration into careers, both general and specific, and connects students to a process for continuing their research. Conference details, including speakers and the online registration form, can be found at csulb.edu/women-and-careers. The event is sponsored by the Career Development Center, Educational Career Services, and the Women's Resource Center, partnering with the USU Program Council, Associated Students, Inc., President's Commission on the Status of Women, Feminist Organization Reclaiming Consciousness and Equality and the Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies Student Association. For more information, call (562) 985-8576 or e-mail wrc@csulb.edu.

********** Published: March 10, 2011 - Volume 9 - Issue 47