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2019 TCNJ Women’s Leadership Summit

TCNJ Empowers Women
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2019 Women’s Leadership Summit

TCNJ held its ninth annual Women’s Leadership Summit on November 6, 2019. This is an event held through the college and spearheaded by the School of Business and the student run club, Women in Business. This year the keynote speaker was Valerie Young, who spoke about Imposter Syndrome. Many of the women in attendance related to this feeling of not feeling worthy of their accomplishments and many agreed to succumbing to devaluing themselves. Even President Foster spoke about this when she addressed the crowd. Three influential and strong women, including TCNJ graduate Tammy Tibbetts, CEO of She’s the First, then sat on a panel to discuss how they go about empowering other women through their non-profits. The Summit ended with an interactive session about embracing vulnerability based off of Brene Brown’s best-selling book, Dare to Lead. TCNJ alumna, Denise Spirito, very generously decided to sponsor six students from the School of the Arts and Communication to attend. The purpose behind Spirito’s generosity was for students who err more on the creative side to see how they can incorporate this part of themselves into the business world. Besides this, the students were able to network with the other strong women from their community and to hear the messages of empowerment present throughout the day.

Carly Nocchi ’23 (Communication Studies) was one of the students who was afforded this opportunity. She referred to it as incredibly inspiring and one of the best things she’s been a part of since being at TCNJ. Carly said, “Each speaker and panel said at least one thing that really spoke to me and validated things I’ve felt. The whole experience opened my eyes to the power we all have in us and how we can tap into it to raise our communities up. My biggest takeaway is that as a woman it is my duty to help lift up other women and the first step is by embracing my accomplishments and pushing myself to be the best I can be.”

The other students felt just as grateful for this opportunity and look forward to keeping in contact with the women they were able to meet and network with. The Summit keeps growing stronger and larger each year. Previous attendees had chosen to come back, which shows how influential this Summit is. The 10-year anniversary summit is already booked for November 11, 2020.

Carly Nocchi ’23 (Communication Studies)

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