Guinness Storehouse Visit
Dear Reader,
Before this week could end, I visited the Guinness Storehouse simply because it is one of the best “touristy” thing to do in Dublin. The storehouse itself is enormous. More or less, I expected a big rustic warehouse with a bar in one corner and a gift shop near the other. Instead, the Guinness Storehouse has seven stories with each level curving into one another.
The first four floors explains how the famous Guinness beer is crafted. The forth floor has a bar serving Guinness for those who do not have the ticket with a complimentary pint. In addition, the fifth floor has the incredible 1837 restaurant (which I was not able to eat at because there was an event booked…a modern day tragedy…). The gravity bar, which is on the seventh floor, has the most beautiful view I have seen in Dublin. In this area, there are windows that replace walls. I’m sure it is more incredible with less people flooding the space. This is also the place to get the complimentary pint of Guinness.
After visiting each floor, I made my way down to the ground floor to visit the gift shop. At the gift shop, I bought a pair of Guinness glasses for my uncle and a shirt with socks for myself. How else am I going to show the world that I went to the one and only Guinness Storehouse?
Unconscious Bias
This week, I attended the Ireland Geek Girl Dinner hosted by Travelport Digital. This meeting brought together many women of various backgrounds, each person with unique and vast character. Being there, it was an honor to be in the same room alongside everyone. After meeting everyone and eating the most delicious pizza ever created, we all sat down and listened to the speaker, Alison Shevlin.
The topic of the meeting was unconscious bias and the ins and outs of understanding and preventing it. Unconscious gender bias is defined as the preference and/or prejudice toward one gender over the other and may manifest in both subtle and obvious ways.
Ms. Shevlin revealed many ways to minimize unconscious gender bias. Within the many methods, the most popular removed name, gender, and college name from one’s resume/CV when reviewing applications. While I believe this is a very effective model to use, it does not leave room for the struggles that women may face when entering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Although, this disadvantage may not outweigh the positive impact that may occur by removing all identifiers.
This meeting was absolutely amazing and very thought-provoking. I am glad that I was able to attend.
Until next time,
Kazandra Zelaya