By Alec Rosenberg
After three packed days of workshops examining career paths, effective communicating, negotiating and networking, 63 of UC Health's brightest female postgraduate students were ready to relax.
Then the closing keynote speaker of the University of California Diversity Pipeline Initiative conference took the stage, motioned for them to stand up and made them march. UCLA public health professor Toni Yancey led the audience in a session of "Instant Recess," a short routine of fun, low-impact movements designed to fight obesity. Energized and empowered, they laughed and then listened as the fashion model turned academic role model offered advice for the aspiring health professionals.
"I would work hard to find a mentor," Yancey said. "You have so much available to you with the Internet and social media. Send an email. Send another email. Stop emailing and make a phone call! If the first person doesn't work out, find another person."
Persistence pays. It's not easy becoming an academic, particularly if you're a woman having to balance work and family life, but the sixth annual UC Diversity Pipeline Initiative conference made clear that the path is possible. The conference encourages UC underrepresented female professional and graduate students to pursue academic careers in the health sciences. It supports those efforts with mentoring — both for the students and for the faculty conference speakers.