Genevieve Rose Rigler, PIRE undergraduate researcher, spoke as the only undergraduate student at the annual Women Who Build Summit on February 21, 2019. The event was hosted by the Construction Institute at Goodwin College with professionals from the field of architecture, engineering and construction in attendance for the educational presentations, motivational stories and networking opportunities.

The speaking opportunity first began when Carolina Cudemus, Genevieve’s Professional Women in Construction mentor of two years, invited her to serve on the Women Who Build Summit Planning Committee. Through the series of weekly phone conference calls, she was then asked to speak as one of three panelists at the breakout session she had helped plan.

The session was titled “Do You Know What You Want?” She shared her career journey which included detailing the personal and professional growth afforded to her via her work with PIRE.

When asked about faith in her abilities to make pivotal life decisions, she answered,

“There is always an inherent risk to making career decisions, or decisions in general. If you know the answer before you began, this would be a limiting factor to the many benefits the process of creativity yields. Not knowing is not a bad thing; there is a lot to be learned in the process of saying yes.”

She concluded with her gratitude that her journey, arduous at times, led her to be working on the PIRE project.

Xinyu Lin, an undergraduate researcher on the PIRE project, has been selected as one of nine inaugural BOLD Scholars at the University of Connecticut. The BOLD Women’s Leadership Network – launched at five universities across the country led by female presidents who have demonstrated a commitment to collaboration, innovation, diversity, and inclusion – facilitates opportunities for young women leaders to utilize their unique identities and experiences to create positive social change. BOLD provides scholarship and fellowship funding, leadership programming, and connects Scholars with women faculty, staff, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, and alumni through a strong inter-generational network. Xinyu will be conducting a leadership service project over the summer centered around her interests in environmental stewardship and addressing climate change.

Her work on PIRE will focus on the sustainability of water resources in Ethiopia. She plans to develop an integrated groundwater footprint of Ethiopia, under the mentorship of Dr. Zoi Dokou, which will present both the quality and the quantity of groundwater available for use and at the same time investigate barriers to water access, since Ethiopia has among the lowest access to clean water.

More information on the BOLD program is found here: https://ugradresearch.uconn.edu/bold/