Students from North Colonie school district were treated to a question and answer panel, where prominent women in the community gave advice about career and dealing with discrimination. The Women in Leadership panel was hosted by Girls Take Charge, a program where Shaker High School students provide leadership advice to female students in Shaker Junior High. Program co-chairs Anum Hussain and Amber McKay invited five female leaders to Shaker Junior High School Friday, April 24. “We are a leadership and mentoring program in which the high school girls will make lesson plans and go down to the junior high. We just teach them about leadership, being themselves, just how to carry themselves as a better leader,” said McKay, who is serving her second year as co-chair of the group. The panel included President and CEO of General Electric Renewables Anne McEntee, sports photojournalist at WYNT Ashley Miller, Town of Colonie Supervisor Paula Mahan, professor of mechanical engineering at Union College Ann Anderson, and Director at the Town of Colonie Lisa Travis. “We thought that they would represent a diversity of professions, so we wanted the girls to see they could do whatever they want, not necessarily they all have to subscribe to that typical female stereotype,” said McKay. About fifty junior high school girls were in attendance. On top of a list of prepared questions, the students asked the community leaders questions like how they got into leadership positions, what is the best piece of advice they have ever received, and how they deal with discrimination in the workplace. Despite their prominent roles in the Capital District, many of the women said they had never expected to go into a leadership position. “I didn’t always dream of being a leader. I never thought of that in middle school,” said McEntee, who now heads her own department at General Electric. Miller, who does sports reporting, said she did not see herself in a leadership position like McEntee’s, especially since she is in the career she has wanted to be in since second grade. “I more thought about when I grow up, this is the person I want to be, this is how I want people to view me… Not a leader, or a person on TV,” she said. In dealing with discrimination, Miller’s advice was to people “a reason to respect you.” Although the amount of women in leadership positions has changed, there will still be stereotypes to face, even when the students get older. McEntee, whose scientific career stills puts her in the minority as a woman, said that when she was in college, the number of women in science classes was significantly lower than men. However, she said that she was happy to see that ratio changing. “If you know you can do it and you have the skills, you have to say you want it. If you’re not speaking out for yourself, no one else is,” McEntee told the students. “Do what’s true to yourself.”