At UC Berkeley, one of the four priority initiatives of the One IT community is to “create a diverse and inclusive community of IT professionals who are trusted and strategic partners with the campus, alumni, and the public.” Of the 1,000+ IT professionals currently working on campus, over 100 of them are also former UC Berkeley students. The annual UC Tech conference provides an ideal professional development opportunity to further this pipeline of engaged student employees as the future “diverse and inclusive community of IT professionals” we eagerly seek to foster.
The One IT Student Leadership Program managed by Cristóbal Olivares and Amanda Bent, proposes to promote and coordinate all aspects of a student employee experience during UC Tech 2023. Up to 50 current UC Berkeley students who are employed in an IT title and/or department have been invited to participate in the student experience. While a long-term goal might be to open this opportunity to student IT employees from all UC locations, we propose in year one to focus on the hosting campus, given this is a pilot program.
Objectives for student staff are to:
- Gain insight into and experience with attending a (first) professional conference.
- Learn how to engage in productive and meaningful professional and peer networking.
- Receive exposure to the breadth and depth of IT areas and concepts within higher education.
- Connect BIPOC and other underrepresented students with a career staff of similar identities and lived experiences within the IT industry.
Student Program
View the full student experience program here. Student IT employee attendees will participate in the following activities, primarily through in-person participation, as appropriate:
- Pre-conference briefing on making the most of a professional conference (virtual).
- Two plenary sessions.
- Up to 8 workshop sessions, ostensibly geared toward student-relevant topics.
- Post-conference debriefing on their takeaways from the conference.
- In future years, this could expand to include:
- Specialized student sessions that the Student Leadership Program would plan/deliver and/or existing workshop sessions being offered as part of the larger conference.
- Networking session with other student employees in attendance and interested career staff (in-person).
- Presentations of their work and learning experiences via poster sessions, student panels, etc.
General costs related to this experience (including meals) will be covered by the UC Tech Programming Committee. Incidental costs that are unique to students, such as supplemental room reservations and/or staff planning time, will be covered by the One IT Student Leadership Program from its professional development budget.
