"This conference gave me new perspectives. Meeting these many successful women in IT have filled an inspiration gap for me" - Nurzat Rakhmanberdieva

April 2, 2015

The grants of the Student Intellectual Life Committee (SILC) have made long-awaited dreams of a lot of students come true. Every semester, every month and every year students apply for various internships, exchange program and conference opportunities abroad in well-known universities from all around the world. Nurzat Rakhmanberdieva, a senior student from the Software Engineering department is one of those students. She became a SILC awardee and attended the Grace Hopper Conference for Women in Computing held in Arizona, USA in November 2014.

“The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is the largest technical conference for women in computing and results in collaborative proposals, networking and mentoring for junior women and increased visibility for the contributions of women in computing. Conference presenters are leaders in their respective fields, representing industry, academia and government.

Throughout the conference I had the opportunity to meet other female software developers, engineers and recruiters through private ‘meet-ups’ hosted each day working for Google, Apple, Bank of America, Qualcomm, Palantir or Bloomberg.  These meetings helped me gain more insight into the goals and work environment of each company and also talk with their employees personally. I found these conversations very instructive, considering that each of these women were in our shoes several years ago and had a lot of valuable advice to offer. Moreover, I was pleased to meet Satya Nadella, current CEO of Microsoft. He advised us on building successful career in Tech field.

Also, this conference gave me new perspectives. Meeting these many successful women in IT have filled an inspiration gap for me.  The conferences helped me to explore new areas of study and contributed greatly to my senior thesis.

I was lucky to win the scholarship from “FactSet” company, which covered my accommodations and participation fees. The SILC scholarship covered my travel expenses and helped me to realize my dream.  I want to express my sincere gratitude to SILC for providing me with this priceless experience.  I recommend other students apply to conferences so as to broaden their horizons.”

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