“Breathtaking” Reaction to NEW Leaders Conference

The NEW Leaders Conference held yesterday at the Northumbria University received a “breathtaking” response from students hearing how women succeed.

The North East Women Leaders (NEW) conference held yesterday at Northumbria University and created by organisers at Central Newcastle High School, was described as “breathtaking” and “inspiring” by female students.

Around 400 students attended the event, and bookings were still being made the night before. Female students from the Central Newcastle High School were present at the event as well as students from 12 other schools in the North East area.

Janice Graves, Marketing Manager at Central Newcastle High School GDST, told The Fresh Outlook about why they decided to organise the conference its success.

“As a Girls’ School, we feel strongly about championing our students to be the best they can be in college or university and in the work place. Our aim is to improve the low statistics of representation of women in top jobs,” she said.

Speakers at the event included Professor Mavin, the first female Dean of Newcastle Business School, who talked about leadership characteristics and how the ways in which females are represented in the media differs from the ways in which men are represented.

Founder of SCM Pharma Fiona Cruickshank OBE, told the students of her work creating her own business, after working in large pharmaceutical companies.

Ms Graves praised her approach towards the students stating it was a “great opportunity” for young girls to learn from women in top careers and the “barriers and sometimes sacrifices” that had to be made in order to achieve their goals.

As well as guest speakers, a workshop took place to help the girls with organisational and group skills.

The workshop, titled ‘What’s Your Bag?’ allowed students to work in groups and to get them to think of business ideas and how they could develop them.

At the end of the conference, organisers asked every female student to write one word on a piece of paper describing their thoughts on the day’s events.

According to Ms Graves, words such as “breathtaking”, “inspiring”, and “thought provoking” were written as responses.

“We definitely want to continue our work after two successful conferences now, so we can reach out to more young women,” said Ms Graves.

By Bethan Hâf Marsh

[Image courtesy of finsoc.org]