Illuminate x Durham: Women in STEM

Hi everyone! My name is D’Mayah Lewis and I am a Grade 12 student at St Mary Catholic. Today, I had the pleasure to attend Illuminate x Durham’s regional conference. Here are my thoughts highlighting what I learned about women in STEM during the conference.

I learned many things today especially about how the #MeToo movement has changed the involvement of women in STEM.

The keynote speakers both gave insightful talks. Ilona Dougherty spoke about how this generation is more focused on purpose and meaning than other generations and about how when young people work in intergenerational collaboration they were more likely to make a change. Andrea Gunraj took it slightly deeper and emphasized the prioritization of human rights when helping others.

I think what I enjoyed the most is how realistic but also hopeful the talks were. Mackenzie Clark spoke about imposter syndrome which is something so many people, especially women go through, so it was nice to have an open discussion about that and about ways to combat it.

This was an amazing conference!! Thank you for this lovely opportunity.