GHC 2025: Denise's Reflection

Hello people!

My name is Denise, I just finished my last semester at SFU, and I was one of the WiCS GHC attendees for November, 2025 in Chicago.

With this being my second time at GHC, I wanted to change up my approach. The first time that I went, admittedly, I felt a bit defeated by the outcomes of the conference. I was stressed about finding a co-op and buzzing to talk to as many recruiters as possible in the most efficient way possible. Although that was a deeply meaningful experience that certainly changed the trajectory of my career, I was left wanting more by the end. This time around, I shifted gears, and at the forefront of my priorities was to learn and make meaningful connections with people first, not their company.

Being at a conference like the Grace Hopper Celebration slams you into such a concentrated space of amazing people with a shared headspace, it's truly a unique experience. In this write-up I’m going to tell you about my experience at GHC through the people I met along the way. Buckle up!

Disclaimer: Not to say that preparing by researching companies, polishing your resume, and knowing your career goals/interests are not important (they certainly are). My hope is just to also spotlight something that can easily be forgotten or overlooked, like I myself did, and show off GHC from a different perspective.

Mehwish

On the first day, I got up and headed for the shuttle. In line, I met a woman and we bonded over being slightly lost on the first day and being nervous about what to expect, her name was Mehwish. After chatting some more and sitting next to each other on the 15 minute ride, I came to find out that she was an extremely accomplished professor from Ohio who was the only woman in her faculty. She told me about how she came to GHC to learn and understand how she could support and bring more women from her school to the conference. We chatted about career, living in Canada, and how conferences like these are so important, but something that stood out to me the most was her advice about seizing opportunities in other places while I’m young. It might seem like a weird takeaway from this conversation, but I do think about it often. After she told me about how she struggled to move to New York City with her kids and how she wished she had done it more when she was younger, I realized I had put artificial limitations on myself on where I should or shouldn’t work. Especially, last time attending GHC and being discouraged that many people weren’t hiring Canadians, I let that fact take over my open-mindedness to explore more international roles.

Sophie

The first of many workshops that I attended was hosted by Sophie, a STEM educator, comedian, and content creator who uses storytelling as a device for teaching. It was called Comedy as a Catalyst, where I got to group up with a fun bunch of women to practice storytelling and using the power of comedy to build connections. Sophie showed us an example of how she made a training video series for a company where she turned a safety training protocol into a fun investigative story video. The same knowledge, but delivered in a fun, engaging way that made people want to listen and understand. There, I learned that we all have a story to tell and that when we see things from a different perspective, we can gain an edge, be memorable, and make things more enjoyable for everyone involved. With the tech industry sometimes feeling like a rigid box, it was extremely refreshing to hear Sophie's workshop and practice how we can bring creativity and imagination to STEM.

Protip: Look at all the workshops/talks being offered ahead of time so you can plan out your schedule accordingly and prioritize the ones you want to go to.

Teni

What’s a Urogynecologist? I had no clue until I met Dr. Teni Brown. After making my first rounds of the Talent Expo (the career fair) and Tech Expo, then grabbing lunch with Isabelle, and attending another workshop, she and I headed for the Main Stage to see a panel on FemTech. The session featured 4 panelists, who were all advocates of women’s health and/or and founders of technology for women's health. To hear the passion and stories of these modern day heroes felt so hopeful and comforting. One of the standout panelists was Dr. Teni Brown, a urogynecologist, or in simpler terms, someone who specializes in pelvic reconstruction surgery and pelvic floor health. Not only is she doing that as a profession, but she also spends a lot of time raising awareness, being an educator for pelvic floor disorders, and pushing to normalize these topics. She was extremely well spoken, and we were completely mesmerized by her story and her passion for the topic. Plus, to top it all off, she wore an iconic green pantsuit.

After the talk, the day was coming to an end. Isabelle and I were waiting in the lobby of the conference centre waiting to meet up with the others when a familiar bright green pantsuit caught our eye. It was Dr. Brown! She looked like she was also waiting around for someone, so we took that opportunity to approach her and let her know how inspiring she was. As we were chatting, several others kept coming up and thanking her as well. Talking to her was such a wonderful reminder of why we do what we do, why we gather at events like these, and how important it is.

Adiva & Aadhya

On the morning of the second day, before heading into the venue, I made a quick detour for a Dunkin’ Donuts that was tucked behind the conference hall to grab breakfast. It was shockingly empty considering the lines at the Starbucks inside. While I was waiting for my ham and egg croissant, two girls rushed in. Enter: Adiva and Aadhya. We exchanged compliments and immediately started chatting unstoppably. They were like two chaotic pendulums personified in the best way possible from Michigan State University. They had taken the train in from Michigan that morning and were going to head back the same night, so they were on a mission; They had to make the most of their one day. We headed to a Braindate together where I was in awe of their ability to eloquently talk about their school’s development team, their projects, their accomplishments, and their goals. It was nice to have someone who I could feel pushed/competitive with but in the best possible way. I ended up spending half my day with them running around, only to reunite with them at the end for another speed run of the booths. While doing this with them, I realized there were a lot of companies and schools I hadn’t yet thoroughly considered or even chatted with and spoke with several recruiters who weren’t on my radar at all. It was so exciting to see what people from other schools were like and to experience GHC at their pace.

Natalia & Lynh

I think a huge thing that people seem to not take advantage of at GHC are the Braindates. You can start a session or join an existing session to talk about literally anything you desire, and people who are also interested will show up to chat!

Last minute, I found a Front End Dev/UX Braindate hosted by a woman who worked at Microsoft (Lynh). The conversation had a great mix of people from the industry and students aspiring to break into the industry. One of them was Natalia, who worked at Adobe. She was super passionate about UX and had such interesting insights to share about developing more visual user centered systems. It was eye opening to get to see her perspective on some of the struggles from her position and how the developers and designers are integrated. Funnily enough, she also told us about how designers at Adobe still use Figma (lol). Furthermore, Lynh shared her experience with AI in the industry and how their designers are being laid off and replaced by AI. It was a wake up call that made me reflect on personal flexibility and how our skills fit into the industry. We even stayed around to chat afterwards about how well thought out web design is dying and what we should be conscious of as developers. Braindates like these show off how special GHC is and how there is such a large opportunity to learn and hear from a variety of people.

Protip: If a Braindate says it’s full online, if you get to the check in booth just a few minutes before it starts they can usually sneak you in.

Sneha

I was in line for a claw machine at the PlayStation booth, where I met Sneha who was waiting behind me. We quickly realized we had similar career goals and were able to exchange knowledge on which booths had positions for us and which companies would be able to offer great prospects. I got to hear about what the resources were like for someone in her position at her home school and compare from my experience. Once we finally got to the front of the line, we were cheering each other on and then sad to part ways. In the remaining days I kept running into her and we’d check in on what else we’d seen and learned. It was such a delight!

Nancy

A few days earlier, I had set up a Braindate to chat with people about HCI and creative technology. Although the Braindate was full online, when the day came only one person showed up. At first, I felt a bit discouraged, but quickly realized it was such a good opportunity to chat one on one. The other attendee was Nancy, who was a master’s student in Educational Technology at Carnegie Mellon. The odds were amazing, this was also something that I’ve centered a lot of my work around. The turnout could not have been any better.

Alex

Why would a man be here?! I know, sorry, but Alex from Manulife was one of the few people who asked for my physical resume and was one of the most meaningful recruiter conversations I had at GHC. I first approached the booth, just curious about their poster advertising a new grad rotational program. Then I was approached by Alex who asked if I had any questions. We got to talking and not only did he show genuine interest in my background, but he was fun to get along with, and had a good sense of humour. He told me to submit an application ASAP since they were already midway through the hiring process and I received an OA the next day. Although a job didn’t come from our chat (yet…), my conversation with him gave me hope that there is humanity in the hiring process and was such a good reminder of why I came.

Protip: Definitely print some resumes, but not too many. Most companies will get you to fill out an online form through a QR code, so make sure you also have an uploadable copy on your phone.

Alan

On one of the earlier days, I had visited the CVS booth, which had really interesting 3D printing NFC luggage tags and were showcasing some innovative projects that they were working on. I talked to a lady at the booth and she mentioned that the tags were made by Alan from the innovation department at CVS. What she was describing sounded like a dream role to me, so I needed to talk to him. I kept just missing him or wasn’t able to sneak in a chat until the third day. When I finally found him, I picked his brain about his role. He told me about how he got to solve all types of interesting problems collaborating with all kinds of departments across the company, like one system he implemented where pharmacies were able to remotely verify the prescriptions at other locations that were overloaded to balance out the workload. He also didn’t shy away from talking about failures as part of his process and how always staying curious and continuous learning have been key to his success. Although it was not an entry level type of position, it was nice to see what is possible long term and his job is something that I will certainly be aspiring to in the future.

Archita, Isabelle, Emily, Felicia, Bhakti, & Aniyah

The SFU WiCS Crew! I guess because I already knew most of them, I definitely overlooked the connection I would come to make with the WiCS girls who I came with on this trip. Having a group to run around with made the whole experience 10x more fun. From sharing anecdotes from the day to scheming our next day or comparing swag we’d collected from companies, the excitement did not end. We would stay up until the multiple AMs chatting and laughing, even calling each other from our separate hotel rooms so we could keep the conversations going. They were truly such an unforgettable part of the trip. Thanks girls!

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To wrap this up, evidently, there were so many special people on this trip. I wish everyone could get the chance to experience this for themselves. The people I met along the way really were a personal main takeaway from this experience. From the things they taught me and the perspectives I gained, I’m so grateful for the people I met.

Hope this inspires you to go out and CHAT! Thanks for reading!

Also, a huge thank you to SFU WiCS and the School of CS for making this trip possible!

Signing Off,

Denise!