By Angel Hsu
Old Gold and Black Reporter

Professional women from across North Carolina encouraged female students to reach for their goals, despite possible setbacks.

Carole Browne, a professor of biology, urged women to pursue their goals despite possibly unanticipated turns in their road to success during the "Women of Courage and Valor: Changing the Face of Tomorrow" seminar.

Browne, along with an extensive panel of accomplished professional women, spoke at the April 19 workshop presented by the Wake Forest Academy for Future Leaders held in the Benson University Center. Approximately 50 female students from high schools across the state attended the seminar.

The Women of Courage and Valor workshop was the second program initiated by the WFAFL, a campus organization that assists in the training and development of young leaders throughout North Carolina.

The program focused on building confidence in young women to pursue professional fields where women are generally under-represented.

The workshop consisted of panels, lectures and discussions that featured various speakers throughout the day, including current students, faculty and administration from the university as well as professionals from North Carolina.

Angela Hattery, an assistant professor of sociology; Evie Shockley, a professor of English; Nicole Burton-Bennet of the student life division of Loyola University and Debra Jessup, a professor of business law at the Wayne Calloway School, were all speakers representing professional women in higher education.

Senior Jonathan Kelly, founder of the WFAFL, organized the events and stressed the importance of encouraging the young women to have a willingness to find their own voices in the world.

"The topics of the seminars included themes of finding and reevaluating yourself, discovering a positive self-image, and realizing that success is self-defined. We wanted the group of 36 young women from across North Carolina to look at these women who were very passionate about their professions and lives and to encourage the high school students to continue the road they are on," Kelly said.

Aside from encouraging young women to discover their own identities and inspiring them to become professional women, panelists also addressed issues concerning professional women and offered information about career planning, higher education, goal setting and self-esteem.

Martha Allman, director of admissions and a featured speaker on a panel titled "No Silver Bullet," said, "We talked about time management and having it all. As professional women, we addressed having children, families, a good education and the difficulties of having all those things. It definitely requires some give and take. What I've learned from my experience is that you can't do everything in the world. You have to leave time to reflect, relax, think, and enjoy life."

Kelly was also concerned about the inequalities women face entering the professional world. "Even though the grade point averages of females graduating Wake Forest are almost a tenth of a point higher than males graduating, males make more money than females do. We wanted to make the young women aware of the inequities that they may face in the years to come," said Kelley.

Browne felt the program had an overall positive impact on the young women. "I think that this panel was useful in that it introduced the students to a group of women who had dreams and goals and have been able to reach them, and confirmed that one can achieve professional success without sacrificing personal happiness," Browne said.

Browne spoke about the importance of flexibility in career and goal setting. "I talked about the importance of keeping doors open -- even when you are sure where you want to go, you may surprise yourself by ending up somewhere totally different than you expected."

Though the road ahead may be circuitous for many women, Browne said their professional lives can be fulfilling.

"They might surprise themselves by being able to accomplish much more than they ever expected," she said. "With respect to time and life management, I say that as the mother of three daughters, I have none. I simply try to go with the flow. I know what my priorities are, and make sure the important things get done -- starting with family."

Kelly concluded the program that evening by recognizing the different support systems available to young women. He attributes the theme of the program "Changing the Face of Tomorrow" to Suzanne Plihcik, a community leader and activist in Greensboro.

"The most important message I received from the program is that you can't change the face of tomorrow until you start by changing people's minds. The young women must realize that they do belong in certain places traditionally restricted to only men," Kelly said.