Women’s summit empowers students to reach for ‘limitless’ career goals

During Women’s History Month, Liberty University hosted the first ever Limitless Women’s Summit on Wednesday in the Center for Music and the Worship Arts, Concert Hall to celebrate harnessing the power of women in the workplace.

Kate Choudhury, interim executive director of Career Partnerships & Career Services, said the summit’s purpose was to honor “strong women who have risen up to the top of their careers and exemplified leadership regardless of age, race, gender or ethnicity.”

Hosted by Career Services, the Office of Equity and Inclusion, and the Student Government Association (SGA), the summit was free and open to all students. A main panel discussion was held in the morning, followed by a Career Center Lunch and five breakout sessions in the afternoon that focused on women in business and finance, sports, ministry, law and government, STEM and healthcare. The summit closed with a “Spill the Tea” networking event in the Career Center Event Space hosted by Mission House Coffee.

The morning panel was moderated by student body vice president Esther Lusenge. Panelists included Ashley Reich, Ruth Bibby, Cynthia Tompkins and Justin Mercer, who discussed their own career journeys, as well as confidence, bravery, mentorship, finding rest and what women bring to the table in the workplace.

Reich is vice president of Student Financial Services at Liberty, which is one of the largest financial services divisions in higher education in the nation. She emphasized the importance of mentorship, which she said pushes her to excel in her career, and encouraged students to say yes to moments that require a leap of faith due to the feeling of inadequacy. Through Reich’s career in higher education, she said bravery looks different for her now that she is a wife and mother, too.

“He who has called you has equipped you,” Reich said.

Bibby (’13) serves as the public relations manager for Polaroid, North America. She said moving to New York City in 2014 with no more than $300 in her bank account took courage, but it allowed doors to open in her career.

“Bravery does not come from existing confidence,” Bibby said. “Bravery only happens in the presence of fear. … (Bravery) doesn’t get easier; you get better at it.”

Bibby encouraged the audience to pursue paths that may seem scary when God is “nudging.” She also stressed the importance of rest and how God intended a structure for Sabbath.

Tompkins serves as director of the Center for Prosecution and served as an attorney at the federal level before coming to teach at Liberty University School of Law. Tompkins knew she wanted to be a lawyer, specifically a prosecutor, after growing up as an African-American during the Civil Rights Movement and seeing the need for justice.

Tompkins said being a woman in a male-dominated field allowed her to bring a deeper level of compassion to the courtroom when she served as a prosecutor, which required a level of confidence.

Tompkins warned that though confidence is a good thing, it does not give an excuse for arrogance and should always be used to bring glory to God.

“Confidence comes from first knowing who you are (made in the image of God). … With that, a measure of confidence should come because that means that you are more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus who loves you, and there’s nothing you can’t accomplish,” she said.

Mercer, the only male on the panel, discussed this year’s International Women’s Month’s hashtag, #EachforEqual, which focuses on creating a gender-equal world. He said his mom, who was the first African-American female to work in her hospital division, modeled this for him as a child. He said he learned how to treat his wife and daughter from his mother, and to not only value women for the typical virtues of being loving and nurturing.

“She also showed me some things we forget about women, which is their strength and their tenacity. My mother wouldn’t take no for an answer,” he said.

“Never be afraid to openly appreciate the value that women bring to society. …Treat them as equal as far as seats at the table. … Women rule the day and we would be nothing without our women counterparts,” he said.

A takeaway from the summit was the importance of working together, regardless of differences, which brings effectiveness to the Kingdom, Mercer said.

“As Christians, we must find it imperative to view everyone in front of us as someone for whom Christ died … ,” Mercer said. “(Our Savior) values and appreciates differences, and therefore so should we.”