Thursday, September 20, 2012
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm (ET)
About the Webinar:
What happens to my SWE membership when I go to graduate school? Are there separate graduate sections? How can I attract grad students to participate in my section? What if I want to start a graduate group at my university? These and many other questions concern current and future graduate students.
For this session, our panel of grad students will speak on their own experiences in transitioning into graduate school and their role in their local sections. Topics of discussion include connecting with a new section, development and growth of graduate groups, and utilizing graduate students in your local section.
To register for this Webinar: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/949930666
Who should attend: All current and future graduate students
About the Speakers:
Moderator: Tabitha Voytek is a PhD student in Physics at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), where she is working on Observational 21-cm Cosmology using Radio Telescopes. She has been involved in SWE since 2004, both as an undergraduate and as a graduate student. Tabitha has served in many leadership positions, including section president, as an undergraduate at the University of the Pacific. She has also been a Collegiate Leadership Coach (CLCC) in SWE for over five years. As the FY13 Graduate Member Coordinator, Tabitha is working to build the graduate community across the entire Society. She is also on the graduate student committee at the CMU collegiate section. Tabitha’s favorite part of being in SWE is all of the amazing friends and connections that she has been able to build over the years.
Kayla Shaw is currently a graduate student in the department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. She serves as the Professional Development & Career Guidance chair for the SWE graduate students at Notre Dame. Also, Kayla was actively involved as the Vice President of her undergraduate SWE chapter at Trine (Tri-State) University.
Gwen Effgen received her B.A. in physics from Barnard College and is a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the Neurotrauma & Repair Laboratory. Her research includes development of in vitro injury models for the study of traumatic brain injury (TBI), specifically repetitive, mild TBI and blast-induced TBI. Gwen developed a SWE Graduate Group (GradSWE) at Columbia in 2010 with the help of the very active undergraduate SWE chapter. GradSWE at Columbia currently has 9 board members and an active graduate membership. GradSWE has developed as an affiliated group to SWE at Columbia, with independent and collaborative programming. Their programming includes outreach and mentorship, professional development, networking, and social events for female graduate students interested in careers in industry or academia. Gwen is the current President of Columbia GradSWE.
Katharine Brumbaugh obtained a B.S. in Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University in May 2010 with a Minor in Mathematics. While at Purdue, she was very active in the Purdue chapter of SWE, serving as the Community Service Chair, Programs Director and most recently the Vice President. Katharine was also the President and Engineering Expo Director of the Purdue Student Engineering Foundation. She co-chaired the Purdue Engineering President’s Council and was instrumental in planning the Engineering Week 2010 celebration on the Purdue campus.She is currently a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) studying Aerospace Engineering. Her research focuses on the systems engineering practices of designing, building and testing a 3U CubeSat. She hopes to continue and pursue a PhD in the same area after completing her Masters by May 2012. Katharine continues her involvement in SWE at the graduate level and co-chairs the Graduate SWE Committee at UT-Austin.
Bethany Juhnke is a second year engineering masters student at Iowa State University (ISU), co-mastering in Mechanical Engineering and Human Computer Interaction. She has been active in her local SWE section as an undergraduate and graduate student and started a GradSWE Committee, currently holding the position of Graduate Student Chair.
Sofie Leon is a PhD student in Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign working in the Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics program. Sofie completed her undergraduate degree at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in Civil Engineering in 2008. As an undergraduate student, Sofie was very active in SWE, so in graduate school she wanted to continue her involvement by starting a GradSWE committee under the as part of the existing SWE collegiate section at the University of Illinois. Sofie and the rest of the GradSWE committee work to create a supportive network for fellow graduate women in engineering through professional development workshops and seminars, social gatherings, and undergraduate mentorship events. In additional to her involvement with SWE, Sofie is a member of the Dean’s Engineering Graduate Student Advisory Committee where she advocates for graduate women in engineering and for undergraduate women interested in pursuing graduate studies.