Carleton College’s weekly convocation address will be presented by Jessica Bacal, Class of 1992 and director of Smith College’s Wurtele Center for Work and Life. Entitled “Crying in my Psych Professor’s Office: A Carleton Alumna’s Thoughts on Building Resilience at College and Beyond,” Bacal’s presentation reveals how successful leaders use their worst on-the-job moments as learning experiences.
This event takes place Friday, Feb. 19 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. Convocations are free and open to the public. They are also recorded and archived on online viewing at go.carleton.edu/convo/.
Jessica Bacal directs Smith College’s Wurtele Center for Work and Life. The center’s programs teach leadership skills, life skills, stress reduction and reflection by asking students to think about questions like: What is your story? Where have you been and where are you going? What matters to you? What skills will help you to pursue what matters? What do you do if you don’t know the answers? More at www.smith.edu/cwl/.
Bacal believes today’s women are being told to assert themselves, to ask for more, and to analyze their work/life balance. But despite all of this dialogue, there’s something that is not being addressed: advice on how to recover after stumbling. Everyone makes mistakes, but for many women, acknowledging them can feel tantamount to career suicide.
Bacal is the author of “Mistakes I Made at Work: 25 Influential Women Reflect on What They Got Out of Getting It Wrong” (Plume, 2014). The book features interviews with high-achieving and influential women from a variety of fields—from writers to doctors to engineers— including Cheryl Strayed, bestselling author of “Wild;” Anna Holmes, founding editor of Jezebel; Kim Gordon, founding member of the band Sonic Youth; and Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck, among others. They each share their worst on-the-job moments, and how they used them as learning experiences to build successful and fascinating careers.
Bacal earned a BA in English from Carleton and a MA in education from Bank Street College of Education and a MA in fiction from Hunter College. Prior to her work at Smith College, she worked as an editor, elementary school teacher, and educational writer and consultant. Her writing has appeared in Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Moms, Inside Higher Ed and HuffPost Women.
This event is sponsored by the Carleton College Convocations Committee. For more information, including disability accommodations, please call (507) 222-4308. The Skinner Memorial Chapel is located on First and College Streets in Northfield.
