I am REALLY excited to write this blog post as I have something exciting to share.

My “how might we” from this year, stems from a movement by Deirdre Timusk at UCC in the fall to create a support/leadership group at the school for women. We read Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In and had a meaningful discussion. The following day was our first cohort 21 F2F and I had all this wonderful time to sit and think about something meaningful I could work through.

My youngest of three children is now almost 4 and I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. What seemed impossible (putting on matching socks in the morning) now seems to be possible. I also heard a message at cohort 21 last year:  you don’t have to be in a formal position of leadership to make a difference. It is valuable to lead from the middle. I have always been interested in leadership and administration but knew that my personal life wouldn’t allow (for now) for that type of traditional leadership role. So this message, that I can influence and make a difference from my current position was really valuable (Thank You!) It gave me the confidence to believe that I can make a difference beyond the scope of the classroom.

I wanted my action plan to be something that I believed in, something big, and supporting women in the workplace felt incredibly personal and important.

So… How might we build a meaningful network for women in education?

With the support, guidance, and mentorship of @scraig I did it, I started something meaningful.

Partnering with two amazing women at my school, Tina Jagdeo and Deirdre Timusk, and of course Sarah Craig, we created the CIS Ontario Women’s Network. The network is designed to unite and connect women from CIS Ontario schools.

Our kick-off event is happening at Upper Canada College on Tuesday, February 27th, 2018 at 5 pm.

The event is titled:  FINDING YOUR PEOPLE: CREATING YOUR OWN NETWORK OF SUPPORT IN YOUR LEADERSHIP JOURNEY. 

It features a panel of women who have extensive experience being leaders in Ontario independent schools. We are honoured to have Patti MacNicol, Martha Perry and Rosemary Evans as our panelists and look forward to hearing them share with us some advice and ideas on how to create and develop a mentoring and support network, the roles that mentors have played in their career, and most importantly how one should build their own professional network.

Following the panel, we will have a wine and cheese networking event, where women will have the opportunity to meet new people and have meaningful conversations about their career.

I am excited to share this event with cohort 21 as it was all grounded in the guidance and support that cohort 21 provides.

So, spread the word to all the wonderful women working in our CIS Ontario independent schools. All women, in any capacity at the school, are invited and welcome. Let’s do this!

CISONTARIO #LeanIn #meaningfulconversations

6 thoughts on “CISOntario #LeanIn

  1. Yes! Let’s do this indeed!
    Allison, @scraig– it is in my calendar and I could not be more excited.

    Also, huge Kudos to you for getting something like this started- It is really incredible to see what an idea that was sparked and nurtured through Cohort 21 can lead too.

    I am sure we will hear more about it tomorrow, and I can’t wait.

    Congrats Allison!
    Tracy

  2. This is so exciting. I loved chatting with you about this on Friday and I’m so looking forward to attending.

    Is there a link or a website that I could share with my fellow fearless female teachers at BSS?

  3. I am so proud to support this exciting and powerful initiative. Thanks to you, Tina and Deirdre for making it happen. It is such a joy to work with all of you. Registration coming VERY soon…

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