GHC News: How To Convince Your Boss or Department Chair to Send You to the Grace Hopper Celebration
With Early Bird Rates available, now is the time to be thinking about attending the Grace Hopper Celebration and funding your time at the conference. Whether you’re in industry, government, or academia, getting approval and funding from your manager to attend the conference is an important step to attending GHC. To help you out, we have developed sample letters for you to make your case to attend the conference.
In previous years, we have published an email template designed by Anna Krasnyanskaya Abelowitz, a technical woman at Symantec, for industry women to send to their managers. This year, we have refreshed and updated this letter for industry women, and we’ve also provided a new letter for students. Both of these templates are ready for you to insert your information and send to your manager or department chair.
Students: How to Convince Your Department Chair to Send You to the Grace Hopper Celebration
Industry/Government Women: How to Convince Your Boss to Send You to the Grace Hopper Celebration
Students: How to Convince Your Department Chair to Send You to the Grace Hopper Celebration
Dear (insert Department Chair’s Name here),
The Grace Hopper Celebration is one of the largest gatherings of technical women in the world and will be held this year at the Baltimore Convention Center in Maryland October 3-6.
The organizing committee and invited speakers include academics from Michigan State University, Oakland University, Singularity University, University of California Los Angeles, University of California, Irvine, and University of Massachusetts. In addition we have more than 27 academic sponsors including Carnegie Mellon University INI, Dartmouth College Computer Science Department, Harvey Mudd College, New York University, University of Colorado, Boulder, University of Maryland Baltimore County, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, and Virginia Tech. Also present are industry recruiters from CA Technologies, Cisco, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, NetApp, SAP, Thomson Reuters, and many more. Women come together to learn about the latest technology, learn new skills to enhance their education and career, and build their network.
Our request is for funding to send (X) students and (Y) faculty to the conference. The registration deadline is $300 for students and $665 for faculty who register after August 1st (for every five students that attend, one faculty registration is free). The conference has sold out the past few years and hotels book up quickly. (Insert any supporting fundraising from other sources, such as travel scholarships, student organization donations, plans to share rooms or share a drive, and presenters and topics, if any). Attached is an estimate of expenses.
A “Top Ten” list of institutions that send the most students is highlighted during the conference “Welcome”, so this is an opportunity for our institution to gain visibility on a national stage. Our goal is to come back from the Grace Hopper Celebration with more knowledge about opportunities in computing, explore career and research interests, and to be motivated and inspired. We hope to learn from student leaders of ACM-W chapters the benefits of starting or revitalizing a chapter, successful new activities we can share for outreach and retention, and to learn of opportunities for funding (e.g., NCWIT’s seed fund, NSF fellowships, CRA-W workshops) and professional development (e.g., academic and industry internships). Having a faculty person attend is vital to ensure that we get the most from this experience. Dr. (Z) can introduce us to others, encourage us to mingle with other students, suggest events in the program that we should not miss, and serve as a contact in case of emergency. She/He can also serve as a mentor to help us put together a newsletter article or panel about our experience, and learn how to organize a Regional Grace Hopper Conference that will draw more women to computing. Having a (Insert Your Institution’s Name here) presence at GHC is important because it demonstrates that our institution values diversity. This lines up with (Insert Your Institution’s Name here)’s vision of (Insert relevant institutional vision/mission/ etc that addresses learning or areas of excellence).
At this conference, we will be fortunate to meet women who have done just that – they have become CEOs, Professors, Directors, Managers, and Authors through talent, hard work, and passion. We want to get inspired and do the same at (insert your institution name here). If we can bring back just one valuable idea, the whole trip will be worth it. For four days, we will be thinking about the effect of greater diversity on innovation with this year’s conference theme, “Are We There Yet?” We will attend multiple panels, a variety of workshops, seminars, affinity group lunches, forums, poster sessions, and interact with women from all areas of technological innovation. Upon returning to (Insert Institution Name Here), we will host an “Everything we have learned at GHC” presentation for our department and write an informative article or blog in the (Insert Department Newsletter Name Here) Newsletter for distribution to a larger audience.
One of the many forums at the conference is focused on (Select one or more Tracks/Sessions that are relevant to your field). This includes some of the following presentations:
- (Session 1 Name Here)
- (Session 2 Name Here)
- (Session 3 Name Here)
There will be a Resume Workshop, a Jobs Panel, and a Career Fair. CRA-W offers workshops for undergraduates on “Undergraduate Research Experience Internships”, “The Graduate School Experience”, and “How to Apply To Graduate School.” For graduate students, there are workshops on “Graduate Student Survival Skills”, “Publishing Your Research”, and “Building Your Professional Network”. For early career faculty, there are workshops on “Finding Your Dream Job”, “Starting and Growing Your Own Research Program”, and “Preparing for Promotion”. For senior faculty, there is a “Joint Networking Workshop with Senior Industry and Academic Leaders”.
There will also be keynotes and invited technical talks on “Technology in Government”, “Transforming Health Care Through Data”, “Creativity, Learning and Social Software”, “Using Process Modeling and Analysis Techniques to Reduce Errors in Health Care, Short URLs”, “Big Data: Learning about the World in Realtime”, “Working Together Apart: Technology and Social Practices that make Distance Matter Less”. Additionally, there will be a Poster Session with over 200 posters and an ACM Technical Poster Competition.
With so much to offer, the Grace Hopper Celebration is an opportunity I should not miss. I appreciate your generous support in funding a group of students and faculty who can use the opportunity to build a community at (Your Institution Name Here).
Thank you!
Regards,
(Insert Student and Faculty Names Here)
<Attachment of Estimated Expenses, including registration, hotel, travel, and meals>
Industry/Government Women: How to Convince Your Boss to Send You to the Grace Hopper Celebration
Hi (Insert Manager’s Name here),
The Grace Hopper Celebration is one of the largest gatherings of technical women in the world and will be held this year at the Baltimore Convention Center in Maryland October 3-6. The organizing committee, invited speakers, and sponsors include government and industry leaders from CA Technologies, Cisco, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, NetApp, SAP, Thomson Reuters, and of course (check your institution’s representation at the conference and insert its name here). Academic institutions represented include Carnegie Mellon University INI, Dartmouth College Computer Science Department, Harvey Mudd College, New York University, University of Colorado, Boulder, University of Maryland Baltimore County, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Virginia Tech, and many more. Women come together to learn about the latest technology, learn new skills to enhance their education and career, and build their network.
Our/My request is for funding to attend the conference. Attached is an estimate of expenses. The conference has sold out the past few years and hotels book up quickly. (Insert any supporting fundraising from other sources, such as travel scholarships, self-funding, room sharing, and presentation role, if any). A “Top Ten” list of companies that send the most employees is highlighted during the conference “Welcome”, so this is an opportunity for us/me to gain visibility on a national stage. Our/My goal is to come back from the Grace Hopper Celebration with more experience and to be a productive and innovative member of my team, and to be motivated and inspired. We/I hope to learn from other attendees successful activities we/I can share for retention and advancement, and professional development. Sending a manager is vital to ensure that our company gets the most from this experience. (X) can also serve as a mentor to help us put together a presentation about our experience. Having a (Insert Your Company’s Name here) presence at GHC is important because it demonstrates that our institution values diversity. This lines up with (Insert Your Company’s Name here)’s vision of (Insert relevant institutional vision/mission/ etc that addresses career ownership and trajectory).
At this conference, we will be fortunate to meet women who have done just that – they have become CEOs, Professors, Directors, Managers, and Authors through talent, hard work, and passion. We want to get inspired and do the same at (insert your institution name here). If we can bring back just one valuable idea, the whole trip will be worth it. For four days, we will be thinking about the effect of greater diversity on innovation with this year’s conference theme, “Are We There Yet?” We will attend multiple panels, a variety of workshops, seminars, affinity group lunches, forums, poster sessions, and interact with women from all areas of technological innovation. Upon returning to (Insert Institution Name Here), we will host an “Everything we have learned at GHC” presentation for our department and write an informative article or blog in the (Insert Department Newsletter Name Here) Newsletter for distribution to a larger audience.
One of the many forums at the conference is focused on (Select one or more Tracks/Sessions that are relevant to your field). This includes some of the following presentations:
- (Session 1 Name Here)
- (Session 2 Name Here)
- (Session 3 Name Here)
For senior leaders, there is a “Technical Executive Forum” and a “Senior Women’s Summit”.
There will also be keynotes and invited technical talks on “Technology in Government”, “Transforming Health Care Through Data”, “Creativity, Learning and Social Software”, “Using Process Modeling and Analysis Techniques to Reduce Errors in Health Care, Short URLs”, “Big Data: Learning about the World in Realtime”, “Working Together Apart: Technology and Social Practices that make Distance Matter Less”. Additionally, there is a Tech Entrepreneurs Lab that is a hands-on workshop to experience the elements of entrepreneurial thinking and an Open Source Day opportunity to code for social good.
With so much to offer, the Grace Hopper Celebration is an opportunity I should not miss. I appreciate your generous support in funding us/me so that we/I can contribute to the technical community here at (Insert Company Name).
Thank you!
Regards,
(Insert Your Name Here)
<Attachment of Estimated Expenses, including registration, hotel, travel, and meals>
3 Comments »
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Thank you so much for posting these sample letters! To be considered for funding, I have been asked to reason how my attendance at GHC will enhance my contribution at my work place. I could only think: where do I begin? See you in October!
Comment by Katy — July 23, 2012 @ 5:46 am
It would be nice to include some templates or reasons that male potential attendees can use to convince their bosses to send them, as well.
Comment by Nori — August 22, 2012 @ 1:13 pm
Hi Nori,
Thanks for the suggestion! I will let our team know and we will think about it for this year or next year.
Comment by carolyns — August 22, 2012 @ 2:16 pm