What Out for Undergrad Taught Me About Showing Up
Introduction
Out for Undergrad (O4U) is a national nonprofit that runs intensive career conferences for high-achieving LGBTQ+ undergraduates in engineering, science, business, and other fields. I attended the Engineering & Sciences conference as a student, and then came back as a Campus Ambassador. This post is about what changed between those two experiences — and what I think LGBTQ+ students in technical fields actually need to hear.
The First Time
I showed up to O4U not totally sure what to expect. I knew it was a career conference, so I had my resume ready and my elevator pitch rehearsed. What I didn’t expect was how much of the weekend would be about identity — not as a separate topic from career, but as completely tangled up in it.
The panels with professionals were the part that stayed with me longest. Hearing people talk openly about navigating LGBTQ+ identity in technical workplaces, about when and whether to come out, about finding community inside large companies — that’s not a conversation that happens in most career centers. It was the first time I felt like my whole self was relevant in a professional development space, not just my skills.
Coming Back as an Ambassador
Returning as a Campus Ambassador flipped my perspective entirely. Instead of absorbing the experience, I was responsible for helping other students get there. That meant recruiting, writing recommendations, and being someone students could talk to before the conference if they had questions or nerves.
The most valuable part of being an ambassador wasn’t logistical. It was being visible on campus as someone who had gone and found it worth returning to. A lot of LGBTQ+ students in STEM are already doing the mental work of figuring out where they fit in their major, in research, in internship pipelines that weren’t built with them in mind. Having someone a year or two ahead say “this space exists and it’s worth your time” matters more than any flyer.
Key Takeaway
The best career development I’ve gotten hasn’t come from perfecting my resume. It’s come from being in rooms where people like me were already doing the work I want to do — and being willing to go back and hold the door open. If you’re an LGBTQ+ student in engineering or science and you haven’t looked into O4U, look it up.