2021-2022 USF GradSWE Leadership. Co-Founders and Co-Chairs: Molly Skinner (Left) and Kimberly Witke (Middle). GradSWE Chair Elect: Rarosue Amaraibi
The GradSWE community at USF has strived to embody the SWE Core Values not only for events specifically for our GradSWE community, but also the collegiate section and surrounding community.. USF GradSWE was created to bring people from different departments together to create an inclusive environment for an underrepresented group in engineering, women, and create a mutual support system among ourselves. The USF GradSWE group strives to promote integrity, trust, and professional excellence to our Graduate Community through panels and workshops, including the Ph.D. and Beyond Panel series. USF GradSWE community works with the undergraduate collegiate section very closely, participating in joint activities such as a Graduate Student Panel, Mentorship Program and outreach events. This year, the USF GradSWE community has been fostering a relationship with our local PACE Center for Girls. They provide academics and activities designed exclusively for girls to help keep them from entering the juvenile justice system and to give them a chance at a better life. Through this relationship, they were able to provide these girls with supplies through a Feminine Hygiene Product Drive. But more importantly, they have been actively working to establish a joint mentoring program by talking to them about the different career paths they can follow through STEM education. In the future they hope to form a mentoring program to pair PACE girls with mentors in STEM. This brings SWE’s core values into our community and will help provide more girls and women the support they need to pursue a career in STEM.
The USF GradSWE group was founded in Fall 2019. The first event was a kickoff networking event to gauge what kind of content would be most interesting and helpful to our students. The next semester, COVID-19 hit and the events planned for the Spring 2020 semester were cancelled. In addition, all events in Fall 2020 were moved online. They were able to use online platforms to their advantage by engaging more professionals over a much wider region. For example, they had originally planned to have a single 4-person panel to introduce our community to show different post-PhD career paths. Moving the events online allowed them to grow the number of speakers and events to include to two panels, one for academia and another non-academia, with 5-6 women in each panel from a variety of engineering disciplines. Additionally, they have been able to record our workshop sessions to allow for members who are unable to participate in them in real time the opportunity to watch later.
Even though the community was established at the beginning of global pandemic, they have been able to engage our community through many different events. This year, the GradSWE chairs have been working hard planning events for this semester and next year. They are currently working on hosting a technical talk for each engineering department throughout the 2021-2022 year. This technical talk series would expose GradSWE to more graduate students and faculty to help expand member numbers.
Learn more about USF GradWE group:
Instagram handle: @usfswe
The USF GradSWE group was founded in Fall 2019. The first event was a kickoff networking event to gauge what kind of content would be most interesting and helpful to our students. The next semester, COVID-19 hit and the events planned for the Spring 2020 semester were cancelled. In addition, all events in Fall 2020 were moved online. They were able to use online platforms to their advantage by engaging more professionals over a much wider region. For example, they had originally planned to have a single 4-person panel to introduce our community to show different post-PhD career paths. Moving the events online allowed them to grow the number of speakers and events to include to two panels, one for academia and another non-academia, with 5-6 women in each panel from a variety of engineering disciplines. Additionally, they have been able to record our workshop sessions to allow for members who are unable to participate in them in real time the opportunity to watch later.
Even though the community was established at the beginning of global pandemic, they have been able to engage our community through many different events. This year, the GradSWE chairs have been working hard planning events for this semester and next year. They are currently working on hosting a technical talk for each engineering department throughout the 2021-2022 year. This technical talk series would expose GradSWE to more graduate students and faculty to help expand member numbers.
Learn more about USF GradWE group:
Instagram handle: @usfswe
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