Break the Bias Panel

What happened

Two hundred and sixty students filled the auditorium for the afternoon. The panel's brief was simple: tell us the thing you wish you'd known at our age.

The conversation moved from interviews and salary negotiation to the quiet kinds of bias that never make it into a policy, like who gets asked to take notes and who gets asked to lead. The Q&A ran fifteen minutes over because nobody wanted to stop.

The panel's final question, 'what's one small thing everyone in this room can do on Monday?', became the seed for our pledge wall.

Highlights

• Every speaker shared one practical tip for negotiating a first job offer.
• A live poll showed 72% of attendees had witnessed bias in a classroom or lab.
• Alumni volunteered to mentor, which kicked off our mentorship programme.

“Asking who takes the notes in every meeting changed how my whole team works.”Kavya Rao, Alumna 2019

“I've sat on a lot of panels. The students' questions were the sharpest I've heard.”Dr. Meera Nair