The Young Women’s Conference debuted on Saturday Nov. 9 in the ULab.
The event ran from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. where student-led workshops, skits, guest speakers, community service, and more occurred. About 40 students attended according to Assistant Director of Upper School Meg Anderson-Johnston.

Junior Alexa Angelone founded the conference, and put the event together in only six months. The UPrep-sponsored Young Men’s Conference, held every February, inspired Angelone to investigate if a similar event had taken place for women historically.
“I did research on it. I’m like, ‘No, this has not been a thing,’” Angelone said. “So then I started thinking to myself, ‘Wait, maybe I could do this. Maybe I can make one.’”
Angelone made the conference possible by teaming up with Anderson-Johnston, Spanish teacher and junior dean Ciara McGrath, and former Social Emotional Learning Director Emily Schorr-Lesnick starting last spring.
Angelone aspired to create a safe environment for women to learn, share and collaborate.
“Whenever I go to affinity groups, I feel the most comfortable with the women one because I feel like my ideas relate so much to the women around me, and I feel a sense of comfort being around these women,” Angelone said. “I wanted to make a whole day where women could feel comfortable and have another woman to turn to.”
Sophomore Sela Rosenberg took advantage of the opportunity and was ready to engage, listen and lead a “Women in Competition” workshop.
“It was pretty good. I thought there were a lot of good speakers and good workshops,” Rosenberg said. “I felt pretty informed. One of my takeaways is just sticking together a little bit more and supporting each other instead of tearing each other down.”

Anderson-Johnston’s involvement in planning student events, such as dances and other conferences, has led her to see the value in amplifying such experiences.
“I hope it continues as a student-spearheaded event,” Anderson-Johnston said. “You all have a sense of what you need and what you want to get out of an experience, and I also think there’s a lot of power in getting to plan something for yourselves.”
Looking ahead, Angelone envisions the potential of the conference.
“We’re trying to get more schools involved,” Angelone said. “I’m really, really excited for how it’s going to look next year with more people and having other schools maybe run workshops, getting more ideas out there, not just UPrep. Then everyone’s included.”