We had our group call for March this past Tuesday, though technically the call was on Wednesday since it was hosted in Australia. (Thank goodness for date and time calculators!!) Zoom is the on-line conferencing platform used for the calls.
This is a screenshot from the last call. For those of you who grew up watching the Brady Bunch, this is very reminiscent of the opening theme song. But, instead of being about a man named Brady and his lovely lady, this is about 76 truly amazing women who share the common threads of STEMM and a love for the planet. It is incredibly inspiring to be on these calls with women from all over the world with different accents, cultures, areas of expertise, and so much more. (Ironically, on our first call, when asked how many of us felt qualified to have been selected, nearly no one (myself included) raised their hands. The topic of how women perceive themselves is enough for at least one, if not more, stand alone postings, so more to follow in the future.)
We had several women on this call who are members of the 2018 cohort and had just returned from their Antarctic trip. Their enthusiasm and excitement was infectious. Even over the internet, you could feel the lifelong bonds they had formed.
On our call, we discussed some of the things that we will be doing in the upcoming year. There will be leadership training and scientific work. The company Human Synergistics (which has worked with the first two cohorts) will be donating their time for leadership coaching. We will be using the Life Styles Inventory leadership diagnostic and will receive 4 leadership coaching sessions. Additionally we will participate in peer coaching. To a certain extent this has started already in that we have been broken down into smaller groups which have been calling or meeting for about the last 6 weeks. These groups will change over the course of the year so that we have an opportunity to get to know more of the team members prior to our trip. And, there will be lots of peer coaching once we all convene for the Antarctica voyage. We will also be broken down into small groups to work on scientific projects. Topics and groups are still TBD at this point.
Antarctica Fun Fact: The furthest point north in Antarctica is at about 63 degrees of latitude. In the northern hemisphere, the 63rd parallel traverses Alaska in the US and the Hudson Bay in Canada.
Summer in the South 