CS students attend Grace Hopper Celebration

The 20th annual Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) was held on September 29 – October 3, 2020. Despite being virtual due to social distancing guidelines, it attracted 30,000 attendees, 250 speakers, and 200 active learning sessions. Attendees from 115 countries around the globe – including 30 undergraduate and graduate students from the Tufts Department of Computer Science – joined to learn, network, and be inspired, working together to achieve intersectional gender and pay parity in tech and beyond.  

Students were appreciative that the event still took place, despite not being able to go in person. The virtual format of the conference made the experience very different from past years. Due to technical problems, for example, GHC cancelled its career fair. However, Angela Maliakal, E22, a first-time attendee, was still able to connect with a number of firms either by submitting her resume through GHC or by participating in the company’s networking session. She was pleasantly surprised with how many follow-up responses she received post-conference from various companies. In addition, students were pleased to hear from keynote speakers Serena Williams and Megan Rapinoe, as well as other women active in industry, academia, and non-profit work.  

Students were able to attend talks and panel discussions and participated in workshops during the four-day online event. Video content from the conference can still be found online and is accessible to all attendees. Additionally, GHC will host a career fair in November.