Find Your Voice conference: Where empowered women empower women 

Editor's note: This story appears in the latest edition of Voyage Magazine

Overcoming generations of underrepresentation and inequity is a tall order, and yet events like the annual Find Your Voice conference at CWU push the needle further towards justice every year. Hosted by the CWU Women in Business club, Find Your Voice connects aspiring entrepreneurs with women who've shattered the glass ceiling. Students learn from their experiences and develop important connections that will power their journeys into the world of business.

Women in Business President Leila Haji says the event helped her discover her own aspirations in the field.

"I've found Find Your Voice to be super helpful and incredibly inspiring," Haji said. "It wasn't until I went to one of these conferences that I truly thought I could be a leader in my field. This year, I was happy to help bring that inspiration to others."

This year's conference, held in March, featured a keynote delivered by two CWU alumni. Julie Back, class of '91, is a senior vice president at Wealthspire Advisors, and Julie Penwell, class of '19, is an advisor at the very same company. Back served as an alumni mentor for Penwell.

"Getting to be up there with [Back] was so much fun, because our stories are so intertwined with Central," Penwell said. "Had I not gone to Central, had I not done the mentorship program, I would not be on the path I am today, and I wouldn't have met [Back], so I feel really grateful for my time at CWU. Central means so much to me, so getting to give back was really nice."

During her time at CWU, Penwell studied business administration, specializing in financial planning and forecasting economics. She was also an active participant in Women in Business, both as a member and eventually as president of the club. She says the organization offered her a way to pursue her business dreams and build a community of like-minded peers.

"Even before I started at CWU, I wanted to go into the very male-dominated field of finance, so it was incredible to know that there was a support system and an organization in place to help give me the resources and skills to get into the workforce. When I was in the club, I went from member to secretary to vice president to president, and through all of that, I had a lot of amazing experiences. Just learning how to collaborate and work well with others was fascinating, and I wouldn't have been exposed to it had I not been involved."

Back and Penwell's speech, "Networking 101: Pitch our Potential," centered around all the ways in which a network is essential to a flourishing career. In Back's words, "by nurturing a really great network, you have the ability to grow your own career while helping others do the same, and that's just as important as what you can get out of it. How you can help other people is integral to the process of networking."

This mindset of mutual support is driving a cultural shift within female spaces in business, Back says.

"When I started working, women were still so underrepresented that, in far too many cases, other women were the competition because there were so few places and so little representation," she said. "I feel like that's changed, finally, where we're at. Women are now looking at each other as support and knowledge and experience, as opposed to competition. These kinds of things, where young people can see women who are willing to give up their time and come out to Ellensburg to speak, show that there's this shift."

Women in Business emphasizes this shared experience as the path forward, through their programming and activities as well as their very mission. Crystal Clausen ('22) says it's precisely this focus on community that makes the club such a valuable resource. Clausen, the College of Business engagement coordinator, served as president of Women in Business from winter 2020 to spring 2022.

"Clubs like WIB are important in the business world of today because they help students feel a sense of community and belongingness amongst their peers," Clausen said. "Many business clubs are career-focused, which is fantastic, but building a network of like-minded peers who commonly face the same challenges as yourself is just as important as practicing your technical skills."

Haji concurs, crediting the club with helping her reconcile the often-theoretical nature of classroom learning with the realities of the real world.

"When I started college, I felt an indescribable distance that I couldn't quite pinpoint," Haji said. "When I joined the club, I realized that the disconnect was between what we're taught in classrooms and what's needed in the real world. We're taught what to do, but not what we might encounter, and I feel like the Women in Business club really helps with that, through connecting us with women in the field who're willing to share their experiences, both good and bad."

Ultimately, resources like the Find Your Voice conference and Women in Business amplify that most basic human ability to find strength in community and inspiration in the perseverance of those who came before you. In Penwell's words, and in a very real sense, "empowered women empower women."