Women in Engineering Program Opportunities for You!
The Women in Engineering Program (WiE Program) at Purdue is a university-organized and managed program that focuses on providing support to current and future engineers. Being a large school-sponsored program with many corporate sponsors, WiE Program offers many opportunities for current and future students to get involved. This blog post will cover some of the resources available for students to get involved with through the program.
The Blog team is responsible for writing what you are reading right now! Blogs are for content that have a greater written portion that may require more explanation, including the different Women in Engineering Program Opportunities. Blog is the verbal supplement to the visual aspects of the other teams, providing both information and examples of personal experiences to prospective students.
Posts and Stories generate their own content as well as assist in advertising the work of other teams. Posts and Stories primarily use Instagram as their social media platform, since prospective students are most likely to discover their content there. Posts advertise Blogs, deadlines, campus features, and more. Stories often feature student testimonials, some of which are organized into series-based content.
Reels, also an Instagram-focused team, generate content that can be featured in several seconds. This may come in the form of themed montages, accelerated campus tours, project or experience videos from students, and more.
Short Video covers content that is too long to be included in a story or captured within an Instagram Reel, such as recorded interviews of alumni or faculty, or longer campus tours.
Monthly Meetings have a theme that matches a roadmap for the school year, and are an opportunity to sit and enjoy a light meal with peers in or planning to enter the same engineering discipline. Monthly Meetings typically host alumni that present the theme of the presentation, but there are always engaging activities that allow for students to network with one another as well. Rather than a typical engineering lecture, these meetings have an emphasis on professional development and the nurturing of a network and skills that are necessary to succeed within and beyond Purdue engineering. Once students are admitted to the program, they receive a program notebook that they are encouraged to bring along to all meetings for notes, contacts,and more.
M&M Socials are designed to be informal monthly events for students to relax and meet with their peers while enjoying activities such as bingo, movie nights, crafts, and more. Similarly to the Monthly Meetings, Socials have a certain purpose based on the time of year in which they are being held. While the Monthly Meetings require attendance for the entire duration, Socials are generally designed to be drop-in events with a 15 minute attendance requirement.
Access Alum events are offered at different times in the semester depending on the availability of guests. Access Alum provides a unique opportunity for students to approach graduated women in various engineering disciplines with their questions, and have them answered with the familiarity of a fellow Boilermaker. Occasionally, visiting alumni will also be accepting resumes for employment opportunities; either way, the program provides a great opportunity to grow a LinkedIn profile or hear about past experiences in industry, graduate school, and Purdue.
For current Purdue engineering students, WE Link is a great opportunity to get involved with outreach to prospective students. WE Link utilizes an incentive program for volunteers who come often and provide dinner during every volunteer opportunity. In my experiences as a volunteer, WE Link is a great opportunity to help encourage prospective students to come experience engineering at Purdue. WE Link is also a good opportunity for engineers to connect to fellow undergraduate engineering students as well as engineering upperclassmen.
For prospective Purdue engineering students, WE Link helps connect high scholars to current engineering students. WE Link is many prospective students' first connections to the Women in Engineering Program at Purdue.
The Imagination, Innovation, Discovery, and Design (I2D2) events are put on for kindergarten through fifth grade students during after-school programs. Some activities that have been done during these events include creating snow plows, windmills, and origami. These activities are put on by the Outreach Team members and the Leadership Team.
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is an all-day event that takes place in Spring that works with 9th and 10th grade students. Over the course of the day, students participate in multiple different activities and work in groups with members of the Outreach Team as members and team leaders. Activities that occur during these all-day events include working on projects related to multiple different engineering disciplines, talking with professors, and learning from professionals.
For any women in engineering students at Purdue, there are a wealth of programs to ensure your success. Beyond academics, WiE can assist in making Purdue feel like home with connections to faculty, fellow students, alumni, and yourself as you continue to grow. RPC, M&M, WE Link, and Outreach all work together to satisfy WiE’s mission statement: To enrich the profession of Engineering through the full participation of women. Each of the teams corresponds to a different goal of the Women in Engineering Program; RPC focuses on recruitment, M&M on retention, WE Link assists with both recruitment and research, and Outreach has a fitting name in outreaching to future engineering students.
Recruitment Project Committee
The Recruitment Project Committee (RPC) is a group of undergraduate women in engineering that work together to generate social media content and draw prospective students to Purdue. This is done by sharing more about the ins-and-outs of what the Purdue engineering experience is like by working with groups on specific media channels: Blog, Posts and Stories, Reels, and Short Video.The Blog team is responsible for writing what you are reading right now! Blogs are for content that have a greater written portion that may require more explanation, including the different Women in Engineering Program Opportunities. Blog is the verbal supplement to the visual aspects of the other teams, providing both information and examples of personal experiences to prospective students.
Posts and Stories generate their own content as well as assist in advertising the work of other teams. Posts and Stories primarily use Instagram as their social media platform, since prospective students are most likely to discover their content there. Posts advertise Blogs, deadlines, campus features, and more. Stories often feature student testimonials, some of which are organized into series-based content.
Reels, also an Instagram-focused team, generate content that can be featured in several seconds. This may come in the form of themed montages, accelerated campus tours, project or experience videos from students, and more.
Short Video covers content that is too long to be included in a story or captured within an Instagram Reel, such as recorded interviews of alumni or faculty, or longer campus tours.
Mentees and Mentors Program
The Women in Engineering Mentees and Mentors Program is known to most students as “M&M”, and has the mission of retaining undergraduate women engineering students through early involvement in their academic careers. There are a couple key requirements to satisfy all of the program requirements: active participants must attend 2 Monthly Meetings, 1 M&M Social, and 1 Access Alum per semester. Additionally, when invited to M&M program, freshmen and sophomores have the option of being paired in a one-on-one or small group with upperclassmen in their preferred engineering discipline. All participants in the M&M program are organized into an “LT group”, meaning that a student member of the Leadership Team for M&M is one of their main points of contact and is generally pursuing the same major.Monthly Meetings have a theme that matches a roadmap for the school year, and are an opportunity to sit and enjoy a light meal with peers in or planning to enter the same engineering discipline. Monthly Meetings typically host alumni that present the theme of the presentation, but there are always engaging activities that allow for students to network with one another as well. Rather than a typical engineering lecture, these meetings have an emphasis on professional development and the nurturing of a network and skills that are necessary to succeed within and beyond Purdue engineering. Once students are admitted to the program, they receive a program notebook that they are encouraged to bring along to all meetings for notes, contacts,and more.
M&M Socials are designed to be informal monthly events for students to relax and meet with their peers while enjoying activities such as bingo, movie nights, crafts, and more. Similarly to the Monthly Meetings, Socials have a certain purpose based on the time of year in which they are being held. While the Monthly Meetings require attendance for the entire duration, Socials are generally designed to be drop-in events with a 15 minute attendance requirement.
Access Alum events are offered at different times in the semester depending on the availability of guests. Access Alum provides a unique opportunity for students to approach graduated women in various engineering disciplines with their questions, and have them answered with the familiarity of a fellow Boilermaker. Occasionally, visiting alumni will also be accepting resumes for employment opportunities; either way, the program provides a great opportunity to grow a LinkedIn profile or hear about past experiences in industry, graduate school, and Purdue.
WE Link
WE Link was formed in 1991 as The Personal Connection Program with reliance from corporate sponsorship. It was renamed in 2012 to emphasize the importance of the program and its efforts to connect prospective women engineering students with current engineering students. The WE Link Leadership Team is composed of current undergraduate engineering students who work with undergraduate engineering students who reach out to prospective female engineering students in high school. The volunteers write postcards to reach out to the accepted prospective engineering students as a way to connect the students to Purdue.For current Purdue engineering students, WE Link is a great opportunity to get involved with outreach to prospective students. WE Link utilizes an incentive program for volunteers who come often and provide dinner during every volunteer opportunity. In my experiences as a volunteer, WE Link is a great opportunity to help encourage prospective students to come experience engineering at Purdue. WE Link is also a good opportunity for engineers to connect to fellow undergraduate engineering students as well as engineering upperclassmen.
For prospective Purdue engineering students, WE Link helps connect high scholars to current engineering students. WE Link is many prospective students' first connections to the Women in Engineering Program at Purdue.
Outreach Team
The Outreach Team works at events that connect students from kindergarten to tenth grade to engineering concepts. Some of the events that the Outreach Team helps to put on include Imagination, Innovation, Discovery, and Design (I2D2), Innovation to Reality, Engineering FYI, Connecting Engineers Online, and Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day. These events are put on for free for many different age groups and the events work to introduce students to engineering projects through programs after-school and on weekends. Undergraduate women engineering students work on the Leadership Team and as Outreach Team members who assist during these events. In my experiences as an Outreach Team Member, reaching out and helping younger students get connected to engineering concepts is both a fun and rewarding experience.The Imagination, Innovation, Discovery, and Design (I2D2) events are put on for kindergarten through fifth grade students during after-school programs. Some activities that have been done during these events include creating snow plows, windmills, and origami. These activities are put on by the Outreach Team members and the Leadership Team.
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is an all-day event that takes place in Spring that works with 9th and 10th grade students. Over the course of the day, students participate in multiple different activities and work in groups with members of the Outreach Team as members and team leaders. Activities that occur during these all-day events include working on projects related to multiple different engineering disciplines, talking with professors, and learning from professionals.
For any women in engineering students at Purdue, there are a wealth of programs to ensure your success. Beyond academics, WiE can assist in making Purdue feel like home with connections to faculty, fellow students, alumni, and yourself as you continue to grow. RPC, M&M, WE Link, and Outreach all work together to satisfy WiE’s mission statement: To enrich the profession of Engineering through the full participation of women. Each of the teams corresponds to a different goal of the Women in Engineering Program; RPC focuses on recruitment, M&M on retention, WE Link assists with both recruitment and research, and Outreach has a fitting name in outreaching to future engineering students.
Lily Brodzinski, ChE ‘25 & Christine Mayo, ChE ‘25
Recruitment Project Committee Members
Stay Connected With Purdue WiE Program!
Facebook: Purdue Women in Engineering
Instagram: @purduewiep
Blog: purduewiep.blogspot.com
Email: welink@purdue.edu
Use the hashtag #PurdueWiE on Facebook and Instagram!
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