Panel: The Power of Story with Career Girls

The power of listening to stories is well accepted. Humans are hard-wired to learn from and to be inspired by stories. What may not be as well-known and serves as the focus of this panel is the transformative power of sharing one's account. This program features several women who have shared their educational, career and life journeys to help the next generation succeed. We explore how speaking their truth has transformed their lives.

Tune in on YouTube.

Program participants are (subject to change):

Anya Adams, director.

Anya Adams is an award-winning Canadian-American director who is best known for directing Black-ish, Fresh Off the Boat and The Good Place. The Alice Initiative named Adams as one of the top emerging female filmmakers on The Alice List 2020. Since then, Adams has won the NAACP Image Award 2020 for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for GLOW (episode, "Outward Bound") and will make her pilot debut directing the coming-of-age drama series Ginny and Georgia, a Netflix original premiering in summer 2020.

Charmin Roundtree Baaqee, civil engineer and art curator.

Charmin Roundtree Baaqee has 20 years of experience as an engineer and over 12 years of experience as a gallery curator for the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Her passion and appreciation for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) community-based initiatives have been long-standing and have developed since childhood. As an Oakland native and resident, she has witnessed her hometown's socio-economic challenges and an active participant in its ongoing revitalization. Her work with local emerging and established artists and continuous support of youth through mentoring and volunteering in Oakland Public Schools, Berkeley Youth Alternative Program and the National Society of Black Engineers is a testament to her unyielding desire to maintain the lively, colorful and economically sustainable pulse of one of the greatest cities in the country. As a mother, art curator, engineer, entrepreneur and community steward, she aspires to cultivate the visual arts' enthusiasm and support and spark creativity in how people approach life experiences.

Anne Collins Smith, museum curator.

Anne Collins Smith is a cultural curator, historian and worker in the literary, visual and performing arts. She is the Curator of Collections at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. Smith has participated in the Independent Curators International's Curatorial Intensive and Getty Leadership Institute's Museum Leaders: The Next Generation programs. Likewise, she serves on the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Arts Council and the board of trustees of the Association of Art Museum Curators. Smith's interests include arts and the economy, arts leadership, audience development, cosmopolitanism, the curator's evolving role, material culture, public art, visual culture and African Diasporic continuity in artistic and cultural practices. Her curatorial work is inspired by New Orleans jazz musicians and cultural ambassador Irvin Mayfield's culture definition. She explains, "Culture is about definition. And if you're not involved in the process of defining yourself, then somebody else will define you; and perhaps they'll define you to the point where they think you don't need to exist." In all that Smith undertakes in her avocation as a cultural worker, it is the uplifting and celebration of culture and shared heritage and creating a definition from many perspectives that drive her work.

About Career Girls: CareerGirls.org is a comprehensive video-based career exploration and readiness tool for girls. It's free to use and free of ads. It has the most extensive online collection of career guidance videos focusing exclusively on diverse and accomplished women—over 250 of whom are in STEM fields—added weekly.

Linda Calhoun is the Founder and Executive Producer of Careergirls.org. This free, noncommercial online platform showcases video clips of diverse women role models sharing career and educational advice to inspire young girls to expand their horizons, improve their academic performance and dream big about their futures.