Four women of very different professional backgrounds gathered on the theater stage to share their experiences of being women in the workforce, March 26. Danica Naval (10) organized and hosted the panel.
When Naval asked the panelists what led them to pursue their various careers, Dalia Yacoub, Student Services Specialist at Westview, said she chose her current profession because she wanted to find a way to help people. Yacoub attended Westview and felt like she needed more support as a student, and now she is that support for current students.
“I’m a helper, I’m a fixer,” Yacoub said. “When I was in school here, I always felt like I needed someone and while I have an amazing counselor who’s still here, shout out Vanessa Ho, I always felt like there was something missing. So coming here, I wanted to make sure that I would be the person that the kids needed. I know that a lot of the time kids go through stress, anxiety, and a lot of the time we as adults don’t understand their experience. So I have that unique perspective of, I did go to school here, I knew the experience, and now can share with the kids here what my experience was like so that they can understand that they’re not alone.”
Tamara Garett, attorney and mother of Taryn Wyatt (10), said it is important not to let others push you into a career you don’t want to pursue and to choose a career that you actually enjoy.
“Don’t pigeonhole yourself just because you’re trying to maximize your earning potential,” Garett said. “It’s not all about the money and if you’re doing something that you loathe, that’s just a recipe for disaster. You’re going to burn out. If you love it, then you’re gonna have more longevity in that career path. So just trust yourself. Don’t let a million people influence your decisions on your path forward. It’s your path.”
Jelynn Malone said she has been able to create her own path and do something that she loves as a woman regardless of the opinions of others. She is the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Mostra Coffee, a San Diego-based and Philippine-grown coffee brand. Malone is also an on-camera host and actor.
“Over the years, there were times where I’d go into a room for a meeting and people weren’t expecting me,” Malone said. “They were like ‘Oh, we were expecting two older men, and I’m like, ‘well, no, it’s me, you’re getting me.’ I think I’ve gone into Mostra with so much conviction. I’ve always been very confident in my brand story and my mission and my vision, so no one can really steer me a different way. I think I’m doing something unique because I’m in the space of creating a new origin for coffee. People before me didn’t know that the Philippines grew coffee, so I’ve created my own path. [It’s] also positioned me in a place where no one can say ‘You’re not following the playbook for how you do this’ cause I’m like, ‘I’ve created my own playbook.’”
But Garett said that for more women to even get these leadership roles, there needs to be more support for working mothers.
“It’s not that women aren’t ascending to leadership roles for lack of ability or lack of opportunity,” Garett said. “It’s because they don’t have the support for a home-life and work-life balance. I knew that when I wanted to become a mother, I wasn’t going to work anymore because I wanted to be home for my daughter the way my mother was for me 24/7. My job would not have allowed me to have an infant; it just wouldn’t have worked. But, if you had more of a parental leave system in place, I think that more women would advance to higher roles in their companies and just leadership in general.”
Real estate agent Jocelyn Lomahan said it’s important for people like her to lead by example for young women.
“[We are] examples to young women that they can become a lawyer, be an actress, and a business owner,” Lomahan said. “I think that’s what it’s all about, just leading by example. I took the chance and ran for city council, and I’m like ‘I don’t know what the heck I’m doing,’ but you know what? I did it anyway because I said, ‘What’s the worst that can happen, I win?’ What ended up happening was I realized it wasn’t for me, but I was so proud of myself for even trying. And if it influenced one person to try to pursue something like that, then I succeeded. At the end of the day, life is too short to not just go for it.”
Naval said that the panelists’ stories boosted her confidence and provided her with a sense of comfort.
“The Mostra Coffee shop owner, she just went to college and she didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life yet,” she said. “She just majored in a random major, but then she found her calling, and she just really dove into things before she was ready. That really inspired me, and I can also relate to that because right now I really don’t know what I want to do with my life. But [she] gave me hope that I could still be super successful even though I don’t feel like I know what I want to do yet.”
