Inspiration through Representation

On November 24, 2021, four Greenwood business students attended the Women in Capital Markets (WCM)’s annual In2Fin event. Open to all high school students, In2Fin showcases the career options available for students within Canada’s financial services industry and in STEM. Students get to hear from industry professionals about their career paths. For the Greenwood students attending In2Fin, it was an opportunity to hear about the unique opportunities and challenges that women professionals navigated in their careers.

Here’s what Pippa Bridges ‘22, Maia Connell ‘24, Hannah Hutzul ‘22 and Madi Reid ‘22 had to say about the event. 

Pippa Bridges (PB): I was really excited to attend In2Fin as I'm always interested to hear people speak about their experiences in postsecondary and the workforce, and the fact that it would be split into panels of women from various business backgrounds was really exciting. As a young woman, I feel that it is really important to have events like this that can help educate and spread awareness about the lack of women in executive positions in the business world and how the younger generations of girls today can potentially enact a lot of change regarding this issue.

Maia Connell (MC): The main reason I attended the WCM meetings was to see what my potential future could hold if I chose to pursue a career in finance.

Hannah Hutzul (HH): I was interested in this event because I am a woman who aspires to go into business and there is not much representation in the field, so listening to advice and experiences from women who have been successful in this field drew me to the event.

Madi Reid (MR): What made me really interested in attending the In2Fin event was how it highlights women working in capital markets and focuses on educating high school students who want to pursue a business career. I personally am really interested in business and want to keep my options open in commerce, and this event was highly educational on those topics!

PB: I found the second panel of speakers really interesting because they were a group of women who were still in university. As someone who is approaching that next stage of education, I found it very inspiring and informative to hear about the experience of these women in post-secondary, and also to hear about their internships and job ambitions that lead them to pursue the degrees they are currently studying.

MC: Overall, my favourite speaker was from TD Bank. The speaker was open to answering all of our questions and they shared valuable information about their daily lives and what they did that led to their success. 

HH: The speaker I found most inspiring was one of the current university students who is attending the school I would like to go to. It was inspiring to hear her story and relate to someone in the event.

MR: The speakers that were the most inspiring to me were the TD Bank employees. They were two women who have worked for TD for 6 years and explained what their average day entails. They truly inspired me to look into a commerce or business career path - I felt I could relate to them and see myself thriving in the business world!