About 200 students from across the state will be participating today in the third-annual “Opportunities!” conference, which is hosted by the College of Business.

The conference will be held in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is geared toward high school women, and for the first year, college freshmen interested in pursuing degrees in business.

Twenty-three women representing all of the majors in the college will be speaking and participating in interactive sessions with the students, said Mary Beukema Harms, adjunct instructor of marketing.

“We want to help them see all the various career choices that can be made in the world of business,” she said.

Speakers at the conference include Mary Jo Banwart, owner of Cookie, Etc.; Lynn Petersen, Maytag marketing and sales analyst; Pam Schuchhardt, Cargill technical analyst; Traci Roggentien, Pillsbury sales representative; Kris Bailey, Kansas City Chiefs marketing sales executive; and Melinda Web Sponsler, Principal Financial Group accounting and human resource analyst.

Speakers will inform students about careers in accounting, entrepreneurship, finance, management information systems, marketing and transportation/logistics.

“It is focused primarily on young women, so it is an opportunity to encourage those high school students and young women to continue on with their education and introduce them to information technology,” Schuchhardt said. “It is also an opportunity to encourage them to be successful.”

One challenge that women face today is the difficulty of moving up to management positions in a company due to stereotypes, Schuchhardt said. “There is definitely a glass ceiling,” she said.

Harms agreed that education is the key to dissolving the “glass ceiling.”

“The more that we as women can help young women to better themselves, that’s what matters,” she said.

There is a $16 fee for the conference, and registration is in Room 300 of Carver Hall.