A World of Opportunity Awaits

By -

This past week, I had the exciting opportunity to travel to Houston, Texas to attend WE22, the world’s largest career fair for women in engineering and technology. This conference is hosted by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and Purdue’s College of Engineering sponsored 40 SWE members from Purdue to attend! I love that Purdue has opportunities like this to develop well-rounded students. I’m going to share some of the highlights of this trip and what the conference offered!

Rocket Park at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX

Career Fair

The career fair at the SWE conference spans two of the four days, and it is a great environment to speak with companies recruiting women! Many companies were conducting in-person interviews during the conference, and some were even giving out job offers. It was a great place to look for internships, co-ops, and full time positions, as well as network with professionals. Career fairs can be intimidating, but there were plenty of resources at the conference to support students including resume reviews, refreshment tables, and career fair prep rooms!

Keynote Speakers

The conference included one keynote speaker each day, and it was a great chance to hear from incredibly accomplished and inspiring women. The keynotes that I attended were Dr. Phyllis Schneck and Michele L. Sullivan. Dr. Phyllis Schneck is Vice President, Information Security, and Cyber Chief Information Security Officer at Northrop Grumman, and she talked a lot about taking advantage of opportunities and being flexible with your career plan, because you never know what it can lead to. Michele Sullivan was born with a rare type of dwarfism, and she discussed the importance of paying attention to the people at your “kitchen table” and leading with an elevated view of people.

A Chance to Explore the City

Since there are so many fun things to do in Houston, our Purdue group voted on a group activity and we ended up visiting NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Since I’m interested in the Space Industry, this was super exciting! We got to walk around the museum and take a tour of the astronaut training facility. It was so cool to see the actual environment where engineers in the space industry work, as well as see amazing feats from space history such as the Saturn V rocket and the Shuttle. Since the conference usually wrapped up for the evening every day, my friends and I also got the chance to go out and explore the city a bit on our own! It was so fun to find dinner locations and make spontaneous ice cream runs.

Build Community

I had so much fun spending the week with amazing friends that I met in my engineering classes last year. I loved getting to spend more time with them as well as getting to know more people in PSWE that I hadn’t met before. There were also many opportunities to meet students from other schools. I had conversations with students from other universities at our hotel, in lines at the career fair, and at other events throughout the conference. Purdue also plans an alumni breakfast every year, and this was a great chance to form connections with fellow boilermakers and hear where everyone's careers have taken them. It was truly an amazing experience being surrounded by so many incredible women in engineering and technology.

As always, if you have any questions about the conference or the Women in Engineering Program at Purdue, don't hesitate to reach out. Boiler Up!

Ella Richardson, Mechanical Engineering

WE Link Leadership Team


Stay Connected With Purdue WIEP!

Facebook: Purdue Women in Engineering

Twitter: @purduewiep 

Instagram: @purduewiep

Blog: purduewiep.blogspot.com

Email: welink@purdue.edu


Purdue Women in Engineering

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Understanding Purdue Housing

By -
Image
One of the many concerns incoming freshmen have is what to do regarding their housing options. In addition to the roommate selection process, you may be interested in seeing your on-campus options in terms of amenities and the communities available within the building. For example, when I accepted my admission to Purdue as a freshman, I knew I was interested in a standard double that I had experienced at a summer college program. To ensure my University Residences housing, I applied to Vertically Integrated Projects so that I would be able to pursue a research project as a freshman while also guaranteeing my housing within Earhart Hall through the connected learning community. For more information on learning communities, read our previous blog! Many freshmen will live in a residence hall, even if they are not in a specific learning community. Now, as a Resident Assistant or RA in Earhart Hall, I have been trained on the term “residence hall”; our halls go beyond a traditional “dormito...
Read more

Top 10 Extracurriculars Purdue Students Want You to Join Outside of Engineering

By -
Image
1. Purdue University Dance Marathon (PUDM):  The biggest student-run organization on campus! You can join as a dancer, where you get to fundraise leading up to the 18-hour long event or be even more involved and join a committee! Some of the committees include Riley Relations, where you fundraise to sponsor events for the Riley families throughout the year & are paired with a Riley family for the night of the event, Special Events Committee, where you organize 5K’s and other events around campus throughout the year, and so much more! 2. Boiler Gold Rush (BGR):  Whether it be as a new student, a team leader (TL), or even a Supervisor, there are so many ways to get involved with BGR! This week-long event is held the week before classes start in August. As a new student, it is your first chance to meet your new colleagues and participate in many games, fountain runs, and other fun activities throughout the week. It is also a great way to familiarize yourself with the ...
Read more

A very (sub)objective review of dining options at Purdue

By -
Image
Jenn and her friends after the Thankgiving dinner Food is an integral part of our day. For some people, the very first thing they do in the morning is eat breakfast. I personally prefer my cup of coffee to a stack of waffles. Nonetheless, food has the power to pick up a bad mood, enhance a good mood, and even ease the stress you are feeling about exams and homework. The awareness I have of how food impacts my mood is recently found since I started college in August. at home I usually came home to my mom or dad making something delicious in the crockpot. Suddenly I arrive at college and there are so many options that it can get overwhelming at times to figure out what to eat. Navigating the dining options at college did not seem like something I should have been worried about, yet it was something that took a month of experimenting to perfect.  The key is knowing where to go and what is consistent. I decided to help you out and give you some insight into how I view each dining optio...
Read more