Friday, July, and sunny Palo Alto! CALI hosted a Happy Hour event at Joe & the Juice. Since February, CALI has been organizing professional events and workshops with special topics to help people navigate their careers in Silicon Valley. It was the first informal meetup for everyone. Software engineers, data professionals, social media influencers, students, and interns in local companies, at different stages of their careers—people with diverse backgrounds—attended.
Whether just starting their career as a freshman, transitioning careers, advancing their career, or living here for ten years or having only arrived this year, this event was an opportunity to connect, share their experiences living in Silicon Valley, and discuss today's career trends and challenges.
As you mingled at the event, you could see Nuraiym Mirbekova, a computer science student at Diablo Valley College from Kyrgyzstan, taking notes from Amina Tushakova, who recently secured an internship at Stanford. Seeking guidance, Nuraiym asked for tips and advice on how to prepare for and obtain an internship: "Talking to her made me realize that there’s a specific structure I could follow, and it isn’t really difficult once you’ve written a solid letter that can later be adjusted to each professor."
Another Stanford intern, Madina Akhmet, studying for her Master’s in higher education in St. Cloud State University, Minnesota, attended CALI’s event for the first time: "Attending CALI was an amazing experience! I got to connect with people from Central Asian countries and made new friends and acquaintances. It was extremely interesting to learn about people’s diverse professional and personal paths, and I got inspired to keep pushing forward with my own journey in the US."
One of the co-founders, Kanykey, enrolled in the Stanford BSG program this year and invited her fellow women students to the event. Stanford BSG is designed for already established managers, which was also valuable for our guests as they could network with more experienced professionals.
At the end of the event, we announced that CALI will host the Early Stage Female Founder Pitch Competition on August 8th!
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