Twenty students attended the inaugural Lead On Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women, held Tuesday morning and afternoon in the Santa Clara Convention Center.

The conference targeted female students and professionals and featured addresses by speakers such as former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg.

The conference sought to provide mentorship and inspiration for females through a range of speakers and exhibitors. Over 5,000 people and 100 speakers attended.

Von Furstenberg and urban artist Candy Chang spoke at the morning keynote address. The session also included a panel-style interview with Intel Corporation Vice President Rosalind L. Hudnell, journalist Jill Abramson and commentator Kara Swisher, among others.

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Nani Glass

Students pose for a photo before heading to the Leon On conference at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

“I really liked how diverse the speakers were,” Allison Kiang (12) said. “You had them from various industries, backgrounds and there were numerous persons of color. The speakers were all incredibly inspiring, and it made us look at how we ought to be seeing things from different perspectives and be constantly challenging the status quo.”

The afternoon’s keynote luncheon featured Clinton and author and researcher Dr. Brené Brown. Swisher also conducted an interview-style segment with Clinton.

“When women’s participation is limited, our country’s prosperity is limited too,” Clinton said in her speech. “There are still too many women who want to earn more and work more but are held back by outdated policies and pressures that hurt them, that hurt their families, that translate into more families struggling. We’re just leaving that money, that growth, on the table.”

After both addresses, the students had the option to attend smaller breakout sessions and network with sponsors and exhibitors.

Several speakers in addition to Clinton addressed problems faced by females in leadership and the workforce.

“A lot of what they were discussing was the fact that there were so few [females] in the workforce,” Hannah Bollar (12) said. “The increasing demographic of women in the area is very slim. There has been a decrease in the last few years of women in the tech field, so they also emphasized that there is a difference that way.”

Upper School librarian Lauri Vaughan obtained sponsored tickets to the event for students, and Career Connect organized the school’s participation.

“It’s an important event to raise awareness about a central issue,” Alexis Gauba (10), who helped organize and attended the conference, said. “It’s also about a lot more than that. You hear about these people who have formed their own careers, and, hearing about all of these different things that you can do with your life, there’s not any certain path to follow.”

To address certain issues that females may face in business, students in the Upper School’s Business and Entrepreneurship Program read and discussed Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In” this past summer.

The conference is expected to continue in subsequent years.