Meet Allison Wong: Jo Caldwell Meyer Scholarship Winner

Posted on 04/24/2012 by AWC Austin

By: Sheri Parr

Allison WongThe Association for Women in Communications – Austin Chapter will award Allison Wong the Jo Caldwell Meyer Scholarship at the 39th Annual Banner Brunch on Saturday, April, 28 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Austin. The Jo Caldwell Meyer Scholarship is awarded to students who demonstrate excellence in academics and extracurricular activities as they pursue careers in the field of communication.

Wong is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) in the Communication Sciences and Disorders program. She was awarded the scholarship for her nearly perfect academic record and extraordinary commitment to community service.

Wong, who currently works as an academic coach at UT’s Sanger Learning Center, took time earlier this month to share her goals and aspirations.

AWCAustin: What is the Communication Sciences Disorders program (CSD)?
AW: CSD is a program designed for speech-language pathologists, audiologists, or deaf educators. Some of the courses in CSD include language and the brain, anatomy and physiology of the speech and hearing mechanisms, and assessment and treatment of speech-language disorders in children. In addition to learning theory we also develop clinical skills. I’ve taken several classes involving clinical labs at UT and observations at the UT Speech and Hearing Clinic.

AWCAustin: Does communications play a role in your job as a peer academic coach?
AW: Yes, communication skills are crucial in my role as a peer academic coach. I meet with students one-on-one once per week for an entire semester. I help them develop study strategies for their classes, which are fundamental skills they will take with them. I ask questions to develop a rapport and, drawing upon the knowledge of their learning style, I develop a framework that is relevant and applicable to each student. I have to be able to adapt my communication style to the individual.

AWCAustin: Your community involvement on campus won you the Silver Spurs Student of the Year Scholarship Award in 2011. What motives you?
AW: I am motivated to volunteer in the community because it is in my nature to care about others. I always learn something new about people through volunteer work. It enriches my life.

AWCAustin: How do you achieve balance between school and your personal life?
AW: I try to make time to do something I enjoy every day. I enjoy cooking, keeping a blog, and writing. Writing has always been a passion of mine. I’m also a member of the Texas Zephyrs. We have events almost every weekend so this gives me an opportunity to spend time with my friends.

AWCAustin: What are your plans for the future?
AW: I am graduating this year. I will enroll in the Masters program in speech and language pathology at UT.

Please join us in congratulating Allison and other 2012 recipients of the Jo Caldwell Meyer Scholarship at Banner Brunch on Saturday, April 28, from 10:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. This year, $9,000 in scholarships will be awarded to local area college students. For more information and to register, visit www.BannerBrunch.com. 


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Keynote Deb Bauer Talks Global Entrepreneurship at This Year’s Banner Brunch

Posted on 04/18/2012 by AWC Austin

We’re honored to host Deb Bauer, Dell’s director of strategic giving and community engagement, as our keynote speaker for this year’s Banner Brunch on April 28. (By the way, have you bought your ticket yet?)  Deb will share some of the ways storytelling has fueled Dell’s giving efforts, especially the Dell Social Innovation Challenge (DSIC).
We sat down with Deb recently and asked her to tell us a bit more about DSIC in her own words. She’s included a few bonus stories along with ways YOU can get involved in the Challenge.

Powering the Possible for Global Entrepreneurship
By Deb Bauer

DebI’m looking forward to joining AWC Austin members and friends at April 28’s Banner Brunch, as we celebrate the recipients of your scholarships and awards, as well as the power of storytelling.

I know how rewarding it is to see your efforts culminate in an event like this. As the leader of Dell’s global giving efforts, I have the opportunity to see the many ways our team members, our technology, and our funding help bring the dreams of others to life.  We support non-profits in countries around the world, working to bring technology access and learning to students, to support young social entrepreneurs, to accelerate cancer treatment for children, and to provide relief in times of disaster. Having the opportunity to meet our partners doing this work and hearing their stories is the best part of my job, and a true gift.

So for me, June is my favorite month. In June, the finalists for the Dell Social Innovation Challenge will arrive in Austin for a weekend of learning and for the final challenge and awards event.  Dell, in partnership with The University of Texas at Austin, sponsors the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, an ongoing competition that rewards aspiring social entrepreneurs for developing ideas that address environmental and societal problems. In June, we will meet high potential students from around the world who pitch their ideas with hopes of taking home a portion of the $150,000 in cash prizes and Dell technology that will help bring their dreams to fruition.

Last year, we met Malo Traders, two brothers who work to ensure that rice farmers in Mali are not malnourished by fortifying rice with minerals and vitamins and creating a brand of Malian rice that adheres to international export quality standards.  We met Daniel Paffenholz, a London School of Economics student who is also the founder of TakaTaka Solutions, which provides affordable and responsible waste management services to Nairobi residents by recycling and composting up to 85 percent of collected waste. And we met two students from India working to provide hygienic sanitary napkins to women in slums across Delhi, while also providing them with a sustained means of livelihood and better standard of living.

It is truly inspirational to meet university students with innovative ideas for tackling some of today’s most pressing social issues — students who are moved to act and make their ideas a reality.  I think back to my college days, and I can’t imagine going to school and starting an entrepreneurial venture – but there are thousands of students who are doing it today.  This year’s competition has more than 1,500 entries from 90 countries.  Amazing!

In 2011, Dell committed $5M over 5 years to enhance the program, moving it to a year-round, web-based community with resources and support for students at every level.  Whether they merely have a dream or they’ve already built a business plan and are looking to raise funds for a pilot, our aim is to be there to help.   Dell employees engage as judges and mentors – more than 500 have helped this year.  And a new web platform invites literally anyone in the world to participate.  You can read about projects, offer comments and support, vote for People’s Choice Award winners, and sign-up as a mentor at http://www.dellchallenge.org/

Getting their stories told well and often is a big key to the students’ future success.  So if you are looking for some inspiration and an opportunity to share your knowledge, please join us!

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Careers Over Coffee talks Pinterest

Posted on 04/17/2012 by AWC Austin

by Rosemary Hook

AWCaustin PinterestAWC’s Careers Over Coffee north group never worries if there will be a lull in our career discussion.  If anything, we have too many topics to discuss in our hour and a half breakfast exchange.

At our recent coffee gathering on Friday, April 6th at Mimi’s Café in the Arbor Walk, the discussion began with Facebook and LinkedIn but quickly turned to Pinterest — the “content sharing service that provides a platform for members to pin images, videos and other objects to a pinboard.”   The keyword here is “member” because unlike the other social media platforms, you have to be invited to participate by Pinterest or be invited by someone who is already a member on Pinterest.

Since this was a career forum, our conversation naturally led to how one might, in addition to branding themselves via other social media tools, use Pinterest to find a job.   According to a Forbes article in 2012, Pinterest is an ideal platform for designer types because they can use applications like InDesign to showcase their creative works while also observing pin etiquette to credit sources or report objectionable content.   The Pinterest community-at-large seems intent on keeping the site’s core purpose, to pin interests in a virtual world, its main function.

What if your interests are interwoven with your expertise as it is for AWC member and Career Over Coffee regular, Kay Bell?  Kay doesn’t sell her writing services on Pinterest, instead, she uses the site as the pin board it was meant to be from sharing photos of her Baltimore Orioles collage to poking fun at made up Golf Boys.   Kay brands herself using Pinterest and shares tax tips in the process—real or proposed, e.g. goofball tax breaks for the made-up Golf Boys or following Hillary Clinton’s fake tax tweets to Oprah.

Whichever social media platform(s) you use, all of them ultimately point to your overall brand.  Each platform, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or any of the many other sites, have their own quasi-etiquette rules.   Know what those rules are, use the tool as intended, and build a career brand for yourself in the process.

Join an AWC Careers Over Coffee forum in south Austin any fourth Thursday of the month or in north Austin any first Friday of the month.   Oh, and we have our own forum etiquette:  have coffee, have fun, and talk careers.

Photo uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons.

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