The inaugural OWN IT summit at Washington University will be taking place November 7th—co-founder and current senior Ellen Kaushansky has been extremely busy finalizing all the details of the summit for women’s empowerment.

“There are just so many unexpected things that come up,” Kaushansky remarked about the challenges involving school formalities. “Once we get the money, we’d think that it would be so easy to just buy the things.”

Kaushansky seems both excited and relieved that the planning is nearing the end of a long process that began over a year ago. The new campus event features five panels of noteworthy and successful women and dozens of networking opportunities.

OWN IT began at Georgetown University in April 2014 with the aim of addressing the gender gap in leadership roles. That summer, senior Claudia Vaughan was approached by her internship boss about expanding the event to Wash. U., and from there, Vaughan recruited Kaushansky, her roommate, to co-found the Wash. U. version of the summit.

“At the time, they were trying to expand OWN IT from Georgetown,” Kaushanky mentioned. Only Georgetown and Boston College have had their summits so far, so Wash. U. will be the third college to feature an OWN IT conference, as the conferences continue to expand to premier universities.

The empowerment summit also connected to Kaushansky personally. As a finance major with a passion for sports, she has always been interested in male-dominated industries, and she has realized that women face barriers at work that are not usually faced by men. By bringing OWN IT to campus, she strives to “inspire young women to follow their passions and own it in their daily lives.”

As she and Vaughan embarked on this goal, the early strategy was crucial. At daily meetings last fall, the two discussed and approached potential speakers and began assembling the lineup of panelists, as well as corporate sponsors. Coordinating speakers has been a long and challenging process.

“We secured our first speaker last fall, and we are still are getting our last speaker [last week],” Kaushansky commented. She added that speakers were recruited through on-campus and personal connections, in addition to a few cold emails.

“Some of the most amazing people that you think would never respond to you are super passionate about women’s initiatives,” she mentioned. Kaushansky pointed out Lauren States, former Chief Technology Officer of IBM Corporate Strategy, as one of OWN IT’s “reach” names who will be speaking at the conference.

Additionally, Kaushansky is trying to give the national event a Wash. U. flair.

“Each school that does OWN IT can mold it to fit each campus the best way,” she remarked. As opposed to Georgetown, where the lunch break consisted of bag lunches, Kaushansky designed a networking luncheon for panelists and attendees to talk to each other in a more casual setting.

She explained, “We wanted to make it more of a round table discussion. We’re lucky that we have the Knight Center, because they have an amazing buffet with the eight-person tables.”

During the luncheon, attendees will be matched at lunch with two professionals, either panelists or community members, based on their interests. She believes that in this format, the luncheon can be another networking opportunity and increase the professional development aspects of OWN IT.

The final accomplishment of their fall semester was the assembling of an executive board. Kaushansky had high praise of the OWN IT executive board and her faith that they will successfully organize a conference next year. The turnaround time is quick, she discussed, as the second annual conference will begin its planning stages in the weeks after the inaugural summit concludes.

Until then, she is intently focused on developing the finishing touches on this year’s event. There have been many challenges, including the removal of Ellen Page as the keynote speaker due to a conflict in Page’s touring schedule. Kaushansky notes, however, that OWN IT is optimistic that Page will be able to speak on campus in a more traditional setting later in the semester.

As Kaushansky left to edit the final version of the program before it hits printers, she reiterated that the final day to register is Saturday, Oct. 31. She pitched the conference as a great event for anyone that is interested and added that OWN IT provides scholarships and does not want financial reasons to deter anyone’s intent in attending.

The inaugural OWN IT summit at Wash. U. looks to be a success on November 7th. By embarking on and leading this initiative, it definitely seems that Kaushansky has “owned it.”