There is no doubt, it is scary to think about jobs and internships. But if you\u2019re a woman in STEM, you may be in luck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is a national organization that reaches into colleges around the country, including Alfred. Created to help women in STEM fields network and mentor other women, SWE is focused on giving women more opportunities and voices in the engineering community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SWE club in Alfred also works to uphold these ideals. The Alfred branch was reestablished this year, and the current president is Sarah Lutkins, a senior ceramics engineer. She said that her goal in the club is to provide underclassmen with resources she wished she had had as a freshman. SWE offers students networking and mentoring by upperclassmen, which can make all the difference in making opportunities like internships, jobs, or graduate school sound less overwhelming and more possible. SWE is \u201cTaking those buzz words and making them not so scary.\u201d Last November, a group of members of SWE got the opportunity to take a field trip to Penn State to learn about its engineering graduate program from Penn State professor and Alfred U graduate Dr. John Mauro. These experiences and connections can be invaluable to helping students see large opportunities on a more comprehensible personal level, and seeing whether they would align with a student’s values, goals, and what they truly want in a job and lifestyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SWE also can help develop communication and leadership skills. Sarah described the meetings as ice cream socials and mentioned how it is a comfortable environment and everyone is welcome to pitch into the conversation. The club is based around women supporting women and helping each other through professional advice and teamwork. It\u2019s a great place to fine-tune public speaking and collaboration skills while getting access to resources. In each meeting, the group focuses on a current woman in STEM\u2019s recent accomplishments and discusses them. The group organizes events, and all of the preparatory tasks are delegated to help the members develop responsibility and dependability. SWE also works to collaborate with other clubs and bring more attention to the engineering ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sarah is excited about what the future will hold for the club, though she will graduate too early to see it herself. Going forward, the meetings will be held on the 1st Friday of each month, and STEM majors of all genders are welcome. SWE hopes to host more events before the end of the semester, including a STEM Trivia Night on April 11th in the Knight Club (there will be prizes), another outreach event to Alfred-Almond Middle School (last October they hosted the Night of Science), and a Study Night. Next semester, the e-board is considering the possibility of sending some members to the National SWE meeting in Chicago, where they would be able to network with hundreds of women in STEM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is no doubt, it is scary to think about jobs and internships. But if you\u2019re a woman in STEM, you may be in luck. The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is a national organization that reaches into colleges around the country, including Alfred. Created to help women in STEM fields network and mentor other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-wide.php","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"apple_news_channel":"primary","apple_news_api_id_2":"","apple_news_api_created_at_2":"","apple_news_api_modified_at_2":"","apple_news_api_revision_2":"","apple_news_api_share_url_2":"","apple_news_sections_2":[],"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Written by Abby Sexsmith, this spotlight of the Society of Women Engineers Club is sure to show how important women are to STEM.","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[121],"class_list":["post-798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-_newspack_news","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n