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NOTE Paragraph

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During the 1990s

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the Department of Mathematics at UNL

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had done a lot of work in improving its program

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especially with regard to female graduate students

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and became a national model.

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That led to the department being recognized

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with the Presidential Award for Excellence in

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Science, Math, and Engineering Mentoring in 1998.

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That award came with a $10,000 grant

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from the National Science Foundation and we were able

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to use that grant to leverage additional support

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from the University to hold our first conference.

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The mission of NCUWM is to encourage women

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to go on in graduate studies in math or a related field

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or even just a mathematical career

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but also to give them the tools

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so that they can be successful if they do so.

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When we first started the conference, a lot of women

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just did not see graduate school as a possibility.

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And opening their eyes to the idea that

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there were lots of women doing mathematics

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and that graduate school was indeed

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a real possibility for them

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was a pretty powerful experience.

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The mathematics at NCUWM—

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we have presentations by the plenaries

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but we also have a large number of
student presentations on their research.

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And this can be research that they've done

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in an REU or with a faculty member on

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topics such as graph theory or statistics

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or even the mathematics of gerrymandering.

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One of the things that continuously impresses me

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is the caliber of the student presentations
at this conference

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and how the undergrads themselves

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serve as role models to their own peers.

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When we started this conference

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it was one of the first conferences focused on

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undergraduate research and specifically designed

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for undergraduates in mathematics in the country.

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I think there were about 50 participants
in the first conference

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and a third of those participants gave talks.

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The conference has now grown to about

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250 undergraduate participants a year

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and about half are now presenting their own research
during the conference

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either in talks or in poster presentations.

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In choosing plenaries, we have two or three a year

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and we usually like to have them representing
mathematics in industry

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as well as academia

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and so we look for people who are not only
pioneers in their fields

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but we also look for women who have a history of

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mentoring other women
or underrepresented minorities in STEM

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and/or who have made contributions
to mathematical education.

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Our hope is that among our plenaries and panelists

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each undergrad can see one role model and say

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"Hey, I'm like that person
and if they could do it, I can do it too."

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We tell the participants every year to look around

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because if they choose to stay in mathematics

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the people in that room with them at the conference

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will be their colleagues for the rest of their lives.