The Tapia Conference is aimed at providing a supportive networking environment for under-represented groups across the broad range of computing and information technology, from science to business to the arts to infrastructure. To that end, the event welcomes the participation of anyone involved in recruitment, retention, and career opportunities for members of under-represented groups-including representatives from academia, government, and corporations, at all levels.

Participants in the Tapia Celebration include Fortune 500 CEOs, National Science Foundation representatives, faculty, non-profit leaders, public servants, members of the media, and most important, students from across the United States. The level of student involvement drives every Tapia Celebration, and the energy cannot be matched.

Please read on to discover the value for student participants from the Tapia Conference 2005, and plan to attend in 2007!

Students Make the Most of 2005 Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference

University of Texas Student Anna Mena Finds First Conference Enlightening

Student Anna Mena (left) and Prof. Cristina Villalobos (right) of the University of Texas-Pan American share a moment with Dr. Richard Tapia.

For Anna Mena, the opportunity to attend the 2005 Tapia conference provided her with a wide range of new experiences, not to mention new ideas. As a 21-year-old student at the University of Texas-Pan American, Anna is working on her bachelor's degree in mathematics. Her advisor, Dr. Cristina Villalobos, had been a student of Richard Tapia at Rice University in Houston. A few weeks before the Tapia conference convened, Villalobos learned that some financial aid would be available for a couple of students to attend. With additional funds from the university, Anna was able to make the trip.

To get to Albuquerque from her home in Progreso, Texas (pop. 5,841), Anna took her first airplane flights, first in a propeller-driven machine, then in a jetliner. The takeoffs and landings were ok, she said, but the bumpy turbulence was a bit unsettling.

Once at the conference though, things went smoothly. On the first day, Anna attended a session on "Leadership: A Diverse Perspective," which featured Richard Tapia as one of the speakers. The main message she came away with - and hopes to practice as she tutors at South Texas College, and as a math teacher after graduation - is that to be a leader, you don't try to teach others to follow you, but to become leaders themselves.

She did a little of that before leaving for the conference. One of the students Anna tutors begged her not to go to the conference as the student had a math test scheduled the same day the conference opened. "She kept telling me that I couldn't go because she couldn't pass the test if I wasn't there, but I told her I knew she could," Anna said. The outcome? "She called me to say she had passed the test."

Prof. Villalobos said she selected Anna to attend the conference to both broaden her perspective and introduce her to role models.

"Anna is the only female (and Latina) in the Discrete Structures class I was teaching," Villalobos said. "The class is mainly for computer science CS majors and Anna is majoring in mathematics and minoring in computer science. Since she was the only female in the class and since I had read about the dismal statistics of CS majors from underrepresented groups and women, I felt she should attend the conference to learn more about applied math and computer science, and to know that there are more people like her who are succeeding in these areas."

After they returned home, Anna told her professor that she was thankful for the opportunity to attend the conference and that she had learned a great deal. "Although she was a bit concerned about attending her first large conference, Anna said she is now looking forward to attending more conferences in the future now that she has some understanding of the benefits that conferences provide," Villalobos said.

Auburn University’s Shelby Darnell Tries his Hand at Networking

Auburn student and Tapia participant Shelby Darnell introduces himself to Tapia 2005 Tech Program Chair Mark Freeman.

When he attended the 2003 Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference, Shelby Darnell of Auburn University admits he was “a little shy. It was my first conference in my graduate student career and I was just trying to learn what was going on.”

When he came back in 2005, Shelby had set a clear goal for himself.

“This year, I knew what the conference was about,” he said. “I decided to go around and meet as many people as humanly possible. I wanted to shake hands twice with everybody at the conference.”

Shelby also asked everyone he met for a business card, and made some notations about each person on the back. Afterwards, he plans to go through the cards again and add any impressions that come to him later. Someone told him that just meeting others wasn’t enough, that he needed to build relationships.

“I want to try to make more connections that are beneficial for both of us — not just me,” said the third-year master’s student. “Networking with others is a good way to build a support structure. Grad school isn’t the easiest thing you do in life.”

Shelby, who is specializing in artificial intelligence, was one of a group of Auburn students accompanying Prof. Juan Gilbert at the Tapia conference. “This year has been fantastic,” Shelby said. “Attending these presentations really makes me want to do research.”

In fact, he has his future years pretty well mapped out. After graduating, he plans to work for a year or two in industry, then return to graduate school and earn his Ph.D. And along the way, he plans to regularly call on the many contacts he’s made.