RISE Professional Development Series for Students of Color

In solidarity with students of color, the Office for Student Activities and Leadership Development (SALD) and the Gordon Career Center are hosting a four-part professional development series for students of color interested in pursuing higher education–the Rise: Higher Education Leadership Series for People of Color.

Thursday 11/15, 5-7pm
RISE: Pre-Law Seminar featuring Shana Simmons ’03, Corporate Counsel at Google and Wesleyan Board of Trustee Member
Dinner will be provided at 5 pm, and the event will begin at 5:30! Register here:https://goo.gl/forms/TsEaK3xEJkKWylWq1

Come be in community and hear from keynote speaker Shana Simmons ’03 discuss her lived experiences in pursuing higher education in the legal field: microaggressions, application processes, how to utilize your undergrad experience to the fullest extent, and more will be discussed!

Shana is a corporate counsel at Google Inc., where she manages a team that supports Google’s growing Cloud business and also brings her commitment to diversity and inclusion to the work place. Before Google, she was an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Stein and Hamilton LLP in its New York and London offices. Shana received a law degree from University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where she served as the diversity editor of the California Law Review, development editor of the Berkeley Journal of African American Law & Policy, and co-president of the Law Students of African Descent. While in law school, Shana also interned at the East Bay Community Law Center, where she focused on projects that would empower low-income communities of color to build long-term solutions to poverty through the advancement of community-owned cooperative businesses and affordable housing. Before law school, Shana taught for three years (one year in Washington, DC, at a public charter high school geared towards disadvantaged black youth and the next two years at the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland, California, where her seventh-grade students received the highest scores in Alameda County on the standardized state math tests). Shana was recognized in 2009 for her work with Oakland youth with a proclamation from the Mayor of Oakland.

Shana has served on the boards of the YMCA of the East Bay and Harlem Week, Inc., and currently sits on the board of Lawyers for One America.

At Wesleyan: Shana was a College of Social Studies major and a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. She was an active contributor to the student of color community on campus, served in leadership positions with Ujamaa, the Student of Color Council, and she also coordinated the Students of Color Pre-Frosh Weekend during her four years at Wesleyan, receiving the Vanguard Prize for her efforts. She was a resident advisor in Malcolm X House and WestCo, and the head resident of the Affinity Program Houses. She was also a senior interviewer.

Friday 11/16, 5-7pm, Gordon Career Center
RISE: Graduate School Seminar
Dinner will be provided at 5 pm, and the event will begin at 5:30! Register here:https://goo.gl/forms/TsEaK3xEJkKWylWq1

Come be in community and hear from alum of color discuss their lived experiences in pursuing higher education health professions: microaggressions, application processes, how to utilize your undergrad experience to the fullest extent, and more will be discussed!

Panelists include:

Renee Johnson-Thornton ’05, PhD, Dean of Class of 2022 at Wesleyan University
Elsa Hardy ’14, Graduate Student at Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Julissa Pena ’12, Senior Registration & Financial Analyst, SSC, Office of the University Registrar at Columbia University
LaNell Williams ’15, Ph.D. Candidate Harvard University