Networking

Dine with inspiring leaders from various industries and organizations. At Leadership Dinners, you will interact with proven leaders and a small group of graduate students over dinner at the Faculty Club.  

The landscape of information is rapidly shifting as new imperatives and demands push to the fore increasing investment in digital technologies. Yet, critical information scholars continue to demonstrate how digital technology and its narratives are shaped by and infused with values that are not impartial, disembodied, or lacking positionality. Technologies consist of a set of social practices, situated within the dynamics of race, gender, class, and politics, and in the service of something - a position, a profit motive, a means to an end.

Join us for a conversation with Navin Chaddha, Managing Director at the venture capital firm Mayfield Fund. Chaddha has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and has been ranked ten times by Forbes on the Midas List of Top 100 Tech Investors. A former serial entrepreneur,  Chaddha co-founded three companies, including VXtreme, which was acquired by Microsoft to become Windows Media.

Chaddha graduated from Stanford University with a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering.

Join us for a conversation with Balaji Srinivasan, CTO of Coinbase, a secure platform for buying, selling and storing cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which serves more than 20 million users. Prior to Coinbase, Srinivasan was CEO of Coinbase-acquired Earn.com, a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz as well as Co-Founder and CTO of Counsyl, where he was honored with the Wall Street Journal Innovation Award for Medicine and named a top Innovator Under 35 by the MIT Technology Review.

Do you have a reliable and strong network of mentors? The Mentoring 101 workshop is specifically designed to address the unique concerns of mentorships and how to get what you need to thrive in academia. Learn to cultivate strong mentoring relationships and sponsors that help you move to the next level.

Learning Objectives

All participants will:

In this highly interactive, two-session workshop, you will apply the innovation principles of design thinking to the "wicked problem" of designing your life and vocation in and beyond Stanford. This workshop offers you the opportunity to approach these lifelong questions with a structured framework and work out your ideas in conversation with your graduate peers. It is especially useful for students who are just beginning their career exploration or would like structured space to reflect on their interests.

Learn from other changemakers in STEM, and build your professional and academic network at WINS. The WISE Inspirations Network at Stanford (WINS) provides you the opportunity to engage with a diverse array of stand-out women in science and engineering, and connect with potential mentors, peers, and other colleagues.

The Fall 2018 WINS will feature Ellen Ochoa, PhD.

Discuss the purpose of building networks in advance of the job search and strategies for creating effective job application materials. You will learn how to 1) make inroads into organizations before jobs open up, and 2) articulate your most relevant accomplishments to demonstrate fit with a posted job opportunity. 

Urmila Venkatesh, assistant dean, Career Education & associate director, Career Communities - PhDs & Postdocs in Social & Natural Sciences, BEAM

Engaging with faculty mentors can be challenging, because you both come with expectations that are often hidden and not explicitly discussed.  This can impact critical issues in communication, research directions, authorship, and so on.  Through this workshop, you will   gain skills and confidence to engage pro-actively with faculty.