Personally, attending the FemCatholic Conference is a dream scenario for a few reasons, but especially because it is a marriage of my personal and professional interests.

Even more, I am going as professional development. As a student affairs professional at a Catholic college, this is an invaluable opportunity to receive more education on topics regarding women and the Church so that I can have informed conversations with my students. I also serve as the advisor for our college’s Women’s Group, and this conference will prepare me to minister to the young women I work with, especially when they have tough questions.

If you are a professional seeking development, here are three things you’ll receive at the conference and three tips on asking your supervisor if you can attend.

Relevant Career Fields

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but the conference is a particularly good professional development opportunity for:

Campus Ministers (high school & college)
Youth Ministers
Directors of Religious Education
Pastoral Associates
Lay Ministers (of any kind)
Faculty and staff at Catholic colleges/universities
Teachers and administrators at Catholic schools
Diocesan employees

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What You’ll Receive as a Professional

1. Education

You will receive a relevant, thoughtful, and faithful education on several topics related to women and the Church. After the conference, you can bring this knowledge to your workplace, share it with others, and allow it to inform your own work.

Specifically, we’ll learn about the following from our incredible speakers:

Whether Jesus was a feminist (Claire Swinarski)
A pro-woman sexual ethic (Simcha Fisher)
How the Church beats feminism at its own game (Erika Bachiochi)
Women’s roles in Catholicism (Meg Hunter-Kilmer)
Pro-life feminism (Aimee Murphy)
The masculine genius and feminine genius (Dr. Deborah Savage)
Witness talks from Leticia Adams and Shannon Ochoa

Whether you want a refreshing way of discussing the pro-life view, more ideas for how to discuss the Church’s teachings on sexuality with young people, or help in building up young women who desire a greater role in the Church - our speakers will give you a unique, faithful, pro-woman perspective that will allow you to return to your line of work and be more effective and impactful.

2. Networking Sessions

Here is a new sneak peak of what’s to come at the conference: a variety of small group networking sessions.

One of these sessions will be for professionals who work with young women (specifically high school- and college-aged). Based on the writings of Edith Stein, we will discuss concrete ways we can educate and form the women we serve through our professional roles within our specific contexts (parish, Catholic high school, Catholic college, etc.). No previous knowledge of Stein’s work is required - we’ll cover some basic principles before the conversation.

I’ll be at the networking session and I hope to meet you there!

3. Encouragement

Working in our career fields can often feel like an uphill battle. As Catholics, we lead counter-cultural lives. This is difficult enough for us to practice, and yet we are charged with preparing the young people we serve (who have been shaped by our secular culture) to do the same.

This conference will give us the encouragement we need to keep going, a fire to reignite our work, and new friends and colleagues to help us along the way.

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How to Ask Your Supervisor

You in? Here are some tips for how to ask your supervisor if you can attend:

1. Develop an estimated cost of attendance.

Whether you already have professional development funds set aside for you to use, or you need to ask for some, having a well thought-out budget is key.

You can lower the cost of attendance by purchasing an early bird ticket (available through December 31st) and booking a hotel within walking distance of the conference (saving money on public transit or a taxi/Uber). Look at flights into both Chicago O’Hare and Midway airports to see which flights are least expensive.

2. Identify the aspects of your job that will benefit most from the conference, and provide examples.

Are your one-on-one meetings with students revealing that increasing amounts of young women have thoughtful, hard questions about their role in the Church?
Do you find current chastity talks ineffective and do you want to improve them?
Does your school’s or parish’s approach to pro-life advocacy need to be revamped?

Think of specific examples of the work you do and how the education you receive from this conference will help you do that better. Show your supervisor what you’ll bring back to the workplace.

3. Be confident.

Whether we’re asking for a raise or for something smaller (such as attending the FemCatholic conference), we ought to both possess and demonstrate confidence. Remember that you deserve professional development to do what you do better. Your professional growth will benefit not only you, but also your employer, who is lucky to have you!