September Podcast Recap

Welcome back SWEsters, as you may have seen, the first podcast of this year dropped earlier this week!!!! With that being said, I wanted to give a little rundown over what we talked about in the episode. Our focus was to break the SWE structure down into different aspects that make the club feel less intimidating.

Professional Development

To start it off, we decided to get into the professional development side of SWE. Professional development is a great way to practice skills such as elevator pitches and interviewing skills, as well as refine resumes. Their events also allow you to interact with companies and get a sense of networking. While many of the career confidence series events have passed, the last one is coming up on Monday and includes a LinkedIn workshop. If you have any more questions, please reach out to Reese Lloyd who is the PD director.

Outreach

If you are unfamiliar with outreach, their goal is to work with kids and familiarize them with STEM. This includes volunteering in the community or festivals and giving science demonstrations. This representation can really encourage little girls and inspire them to pursue something in the STEM field. If this is of interest to you and you’re wondering more about how to get involved, don’t hesitate to talk to Maddie Phillips, who is the director.

Social

This is one of the best ways to get to know some of the other members of SWE. Social events allow you to interact with people in smaller groups with other people who may have similar interests to you. Some of the events they hold are movie nights, a Halloween social and cake wars. If you are a fan of reading, they also host book club socials in conjunction with the Education branch of SWE. Social also does a monthly Wellness Bingo which is a great way to refocus your mind from school and just appreciate taking a break, oh also did I mention that you could possibly win a prize by participating in it; pretty sick right!?!? Another big part of social is Buckeyethon, which if you haven’t heard of that, it’s a campus wide 24-hour dance marathon fundraiser for childhood cancer. In the time leading up to the event, the club looks to raise as much money as possible by putting on their own events or small fundraisers. If you have any questions, please get in touch with Annabelle Zerby.

Education

The education aspect of SWE is a great way to learn how to be an ally or an advocate as well as to just learn some general life skills. They currently have 3 affinity groups, HeforSWE, LGBTQ+, DisAbility Inclusion and are working on establishing another one, Asian Connections. Some events that they’ve hosted in the past were wine-making, brewery tours, and adulting 101. If you are intrigued by this and want to learn more, reach out to Maggie Foster.

Conference

This is a great way to develop professionally and become closer to other members. Each year, SWE attends two conferences, the national one in the fall and a local one in the spring. The national one is being held in Chicago this year and the location for the local one is still to be decided. You may be wondering what exactly a conference is, well one of the things that happens at conferences sessions that open your mind up to different ways of thinking and help you grow. They also hold career fairs for you to talk to employers. Not only do you get to experience the event itself, but you also get to explore a new city!! If you want to get into more of the nitty-gritty of conference, contact Abby Pollauf.

Leadership/Mentorship

I want to start this off by saying that SWE is a big organization, but with that comes a lot of opportunities for leadership roles. As of right now, we have 17 officers and 29+ chairs and on top of that we offer an early leader ambassador program. ELAP is a year-long program that is targeted for first- and second-year students and aims to develop leadership skills. SWE also offer mentoring with their big-little program which can be really helpful as a first- or second-year student along with transfers. This is also a great way to get to know some of the officers or chairs as a big portion of Bigs also hold these roles. While big-little families have already been formed for this semester, don’t get too sad as they open it back up again in the Spring. Lastly, I want to bring light to societal SWE which opens so many more doors. Not only does it allow you to run for a chair or officer, but societal SWE also holds online seminars that you can attend to grow. You can also be connected to a mentor within your field of study. This membership has a one-time fee of $50; however, if you send in your membership number, you can get a $10 gift card to Starbucks, Amazon, or Chipotle. This membership covers all four years of college, as well as one year after graduation.

With all of this being said, we know that SWE is a big organization, but don’t let that deter you from getting involved. Hopefully breaking it down into different aspects makes it easier for you to navigate, but even so, it’s okay if it takes you a minute to find your place in the organization. The beauty of SWE is that you can get involved as much or as little as you want and at the end of the day, there will always be a place for you.

P.S. Even if you don’t want to listen to the podcast, there is still a poll question that you can answer.

— With Love, Emma