Meet Yvonne Pilon
Yvonne Pilon recieved her Honours Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Windsor. She is currently the CEO of WEtech Alliance. When not working Yvonne can be found trying new ways to stay healthy, travelling to new cities or volunteering with cool organizations like First Robotics!
When did your love of STEM begin?
Believe it or not, my journey with STEM began in a New Venture Formation class during my undergrad. Not only did I fall in love with entrepreneurship, my very first tech venture sparked from a class project. From then on, it's been a STEM life of "happily ever after".
What is the best part about working in the field of STEM?
Imagine spending your days working alongside companies and people who are literally creating future of everything. The future of work, the future of automotive, the future of health, the future of agriculture, the future renewable energy and really the future society. Working in STEM provides you an opportunity to create that "future" and it also provides you an unique opportunity to constant learning.
What advice would you give young women interested in a career in STEM?
Let me first begin by telling you a story. Did you know that crash-test dummies were first introduced in the 1950s, and for decades they were based around the 50th-percentile male? Although men are more likely than women to be involved in a car crash, a women is 47% more likely to be seriously injured, and 71% more likely to be moderately injured, even when researchers control for factors such as height, weight, seatbelt usage, and crash intensity. If these are the stats, then why did it take until 2011 for society to start using a female crash-test dummy?
This leads me to my advice to women interested in a career in STEM, not only will you have the opportunity to be a part of creating the future you will also have the opportunity to provide a critical lens and perspective into this future. As Warren Buffet once said "We’ve seen what can be accomplished when we use 50% of our human capacity. If you visualize what 100% can do, you’ll join me as an unbridled optimist about America’s future.”