The Equity Task Force hosted its first speaker event, featuring professionals in non-STEM fields from April 2 to 4. The event gave students the opportunity to learn from the experiences of a recruiter at Meta, an artist and a human resources professional from Guidewire Software.
ETF is an organization that consists of parents, students and school staff who work toward building an equitable and harmonious environment at Lynbrook. Founded in 2020 by Vice Principal David Erwin, the group is largely led by students. They gather data through school-wide surveys and equity studies. Using direct feedback and critique, ETF identifies problems that impact our student population and brainstorms solutions to present to administration. Once these plans are approved, they are able to move forward and bring change to the school.
“This event stemmed from us wanting to give students access to resources and opportunities to explore jobs and fields that they may not be familiar with,” junior and ETF member Irene Chung said.
When choosing speakers, the committee made certain that the guests had a good amount of experience to draw from. The three speakers chosen were Robert Nepomuceno, Karen Tseng and Joyce Quindipan.
Nepomuceno is a senior recruiter at Meta. After acquiring a Bachelor of Arts in architecture from UC Berkeley, he made a career switch and shifted to managerial positions. With eight years of work experience, he became a senior recruiter at Meta and working alongside a team of global recruiters, he finds qualified candidates for open positions at the company.
Tseng is an artist as well as an art educator in the Cupertino Union School District. She had previously worked as a research assistant and an account executive while continuing her art on the side. Having acquired a Bachelor of Arts in art history and Asian studies, Tseng has always been interested in pursuing art, but her masters of business administration from University of San Francisco added to her credentials and allowed her to explore other job options. In 2006, she found her place in CUSD and has been working there ever since.
As a part of HR in Guidewire Software, Quindipan is in charge of global talent attraction enablement. She graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor of Science in mass communication and then went to Boston College to pursue a Master of Science in business administration and management.
ETF feels that the event was a success because the number of attendees exceeded their expectations. Thoughtful questions and active participation from students demonstrated the interest and appreciation they had for this event. ETF hopes to continue hosting informative events like this in the future.
“I think it’s important to give kids a wider perspective on what their future can look like,” Chung said. “Hearing directly from people who have achieved success in less common fields will hopefully encourage them to think through their options.”
