Mayor London Breed was the guest speaker for the Women’s History Month Panel organized by the Women’s Empowerment Club held on March 15th. The panelist included four women: pilot Donna Lee, CMO and founder of the Wolfpack Gabrielle Tenaglia, health equity consultant and educator Gayle Tang, and fire chief Suwanna Kerdkaew.
“We wanted people to see women in their desired field of interest and have a conversation that was very diverse. All of that played a part in who we chose” said president of the Women’s Empowerment Club, Senior Manda C.
To begin, the panelists each introduced themselves and explained their experiences, careers, and hardships. Gabrielle Tenaglia was born on the east coast to immigrant parents and began to get passionate about supporting women when she experienced how they didn’t have access to the same resources, support, and networking. That’s when she founded the “Wolfpack”, a growing 300-person strong women’s networking group to advise and support women founders.
Another panelist, Gayle Tang immigrated to San Francisco from Hong Kong at a very young age. She went to and graduated from Galileo, but couldn’t afford education after high school. With the encouragement of her friend in USF, she applied for a scholarship and got the money for college. This enabled her to get her Bachelor Degree in Nursing and she is now the National Executive at Kaiser.
Next was a Q&A with the audience where questions asked to the panelist included: “What advice would you give young women?” and “How do you feel your female identity has shaped you careerwise?”
Advice from the panelists ranged from to not be afraid of failure, follow your passion, and to remember to always try so your chances are never zero. About being a woman in her industry, Tenaglia said, “I have spent a lot of time in my career being the only woman in the room. I made a decision at some point to be very loud. They needed to hear a point of view from a woman, a mom, a daughter of immigrants, to amplify other voices that aren’t easily heard.”
At 1:40, the time Mayor London Breed was scheduled to speak, a group of protesters silently held signs protesting the genocide in Gaza, aimed bring its attention to the Mayor. However, Mayor London Breed came on later, and protesters had to wait.
Not until after 5th period began did guest speaker Mayor London Breed, a former Galileo student, arrive. One topic she talked about was when she was in Galileo’s ASB, she was Vice President, and at the time there was a boy’s vice president who was responsible for business and the girl’s vice president who was responsible for social things, remarking on how even in schools there may be some things in place that can hold girls back.
“The purpose of the panel was to bring attention to Women’s History Month and to celebrate the role of women in society and their contributions,” says Manda, adding,“ We wanted to offer students a chance to ask questions they otherwise might not be able to ask professional women in the industry.”
