Women's career conference highlights mentors

In the quest for personal and career growth, identifying mentors was the theme for "Intersections: Career Conference for Women."

About 110 female Cal State Long Beach students, CSULB alumni, and professionals filled the Multipurpose Room in the University Student Union Friday to gain perspectives on career development.

"It's important to let people know what you want to do," said Dr. Luelinda Tomlin, an optometrist and CSULB alumna. "You can make connections that way."

Tomlin was part of the conference's panel discussion featuring "five very powerful and very diverse women" said Marcela Chavez, director of the Women's Resource Center.

Panelist, Huong Tran Nguyen, named her father and her husband as her mentors. Nguyen came to the United States from Vietnam in 1971 to study business, but became a teacher instead.  Even though one of her professors told her she would never make it, she now teaches in the Long Beach Unified School District and has been a Disney Oustanding Teacher of the Year Award recipient. 

"It's great if you know exactly what you want," Nguyen said, "But it's okay if you're not sure."

The final panelist generated the biggest reaction from the audience, from laughter to looks of surprise and amazement. Tracy Tolbert, a lecturer in the sociology department, joined a gang, drank and used drugs when she was young.  

With the help of a school counselor, she graduated from high school.  But as she graduated from school, she also graduated from gang life and made her way into organized crime. With the help of her mother, she decided to change her ways became a police officer, and went back to school.

"In order to be successfulÖyou have to be able to meet challenges," Tolbert said, "You have to go out there and do it!"

Sophomore Chaska Corvacho, a marketing and film and electronic arts major, said she did not know what to expect from the conference, but she walked away with some good advice. 

"There are so many informal mentors that you don't even think about," Corvacho said. "I'd like to find a formal mentor."