Feel Good Tips and Tricks

Hey everyone!

I hope you are all surviving your midterms. The “Feel Good” week we had early this February (along with my own battle with the sudden flood of midterms and labs and assignments) has inspired me to do a little segment here on mental health. Hopefully my experiences and advice I have received will give you some ideas on how to keep a positive mental health and de-stress a bit with the university lifestyle.
 So here are my tips on how to keep feeling good and managing the stress of your hectic life:

1) Think positive!

 For me this is definitely the most important advice I can give myself in regard to maintaining great mental health. It is so easy to get swept up in all the negatives. If you are anything like me, you are constantly thinking about what you have to do when you get home and how you have all these deadlines piling up and you realize one day that the only conversations you have had this week were competitions with your friends about who is the busiest. And once you’re in this dark hole, it can be hard to get out. But try to focus on the little things, like how pretty icicles are when the sun shines through them, or the fact that your prof wears colourful patterned socks every day. If you can’t think of any, try looking at Neil Pasricha’s blog of 100 awesome things to get the mental ball rolling. Try to frame your thoughts in a positive light and remember that all of your hard work here at Carleton is getting you an amazing education that you will one day use to change the world!

2) Do something you enjoy doing.

For me, it’s ballet. I definitely feel better after every ballet class. Pick something that you really enjoy doing, no matter what it is (even if it is weird, like yodeling). Do something that makes you feel absolutely alive every time you do it. And I know, you’re busy, but try to take an hour or two a week. You will be doing what you love and helping your mental health at the same time! Hint: if you find a club or society that does what you love, you can be doing something you enjoy for you and your mental health AND beefing up your co-curricular record or meeting your semesterly quota for school involvement.

 3) Get moving!

We all know we need to exercise and that exercise helps us maintain our physical health. But there has been a tone of research done recently that shows that physical activity is crucial for good mental health as well! Exercise helps relieve your body of all the stress hormones it’s been building up. And who doesn’t want the totally amazing endorphin high you get after a good workout? (It’s like drugs but legal! And free!) If you didn’t get a change to go to our CUWISE Commit to Me super fun fitness classes, you can ask our very own Alicia Gal for some cool exercises you can do at home any time. On top of keeping you fit, regular exercise helps you sleep better, focus more, and gives you an outlet for all of your stress and energy.

 4) Stay social

 Being around others always helps me feel better after a long night of studying. And spending time with my best friend or my boyfriend gives me a chance to have a laugh, unwind, and forget about school for a little bit. You could be surprised at how much good a monthly girls’ night out can do. What fun is university if you don’t go to the occasional party and dance it up?

 5) Go outside

I know its winter. And some days its so cold I lose feeling in my face within two minutes of being outside, but leaving the tunnels for a few hours at a time could be really great for you. Tip: study somewhere with lots of windows and LOTS of sun. It is finally starting to get sunny again, so grab your books and head over to somewhere on campus with a great view of the river (like the Timmies in River. Haha). It has been shown that spending even a couple of minutes in nature increases people’s positivity and decreased their stress levels. So go take a minute out of your day and look at trees. It’s also really cool to see how the water flows through the half-frozen –over river next to campus.

 I know some of these points have been obvious, but it is always good to remind ourselves of what we can do to keep ourselves happy, healthy, and stress-free.

 Hint: to get the most mental wellness bang for your buck (and by buck I mean time), combine a few of the tips above into one great activity! For example, I use ballet to work my body, and do something for myself that I love doing. Or you can do yoga and meditation to get moving and to bring yourself to a more positive mental state. Whatever it is that you do, remember that it is just important to maintain our mental health as it is to keep ourselves in good physical health. ANY effort towards a less stressed you is great.

And don’t forget to HAVE FUN!

-Sarah

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Sarah is a second year student in Carleton's Neuroscience program. When she's not cramming all of science into her brain she likes to watch cartoons and YouTube videos of people playing weird video games.

There and Back Again: A Journey from Engineering to Arts and Back Again

I love talking to people about the educational choices I’ve made, but I don’t love justifying these choices to ignorant people. Before I start ranting about some of the ignorance I have faced, let me tell you a bit about myself.

At the end of high school when I went to apply to university I was stumped. Most people knew what they wanted to study, so it was just a question of where? Me, I had no clue, I loved physics, calculus, and history, and had strong interests in politics, social issues, and sewing, so where did that put me? Clearly I didn’t fit neatly into either the science box or the arts box, so I applied to a variety of programs at a few different Ontario universities and, long story short, I started studying engineering at McMaster University. One week in, I knew I had made the right choice when I learned about the Engineering and Society Program, that allows you to take a significant number of electives during your engineering degree (and even a minor if you want) and includes specialized courses about how engineering relates to society. So, starting in second year I was studying Civil Engineering and Society with a minor in History and it was great—sort of.

There were parts of my undergraduate degree I loved (my society classes for example), but there were lots of things I hated (basically anything even remotely related to structural engineering). I managed to switch into the environmental stream of Civil Engineering retroactively in order to avoid taking the steel class, but still didn’t really love what I was doing. The main focus of my engineering courses was water treatment and management and after 4 years of undergrad and a yearlong internship, I was pretty sure I hated engineering, so when it came time to plan my next move, I looked for a way out.

After submitting applications to teacher’s college and Carleton’s Public Policy and Administration Program, the strangest thing happened in my final term of undergrad—I finally took an engineering class I didn’t just like, I LOVED. Transportation Planning was the first engineering class I had taken where the subject matter really made sense to me, and I felt like I could contribute to the field of study. It was a fantastic feeling—to love something you are studying. Equipped with this knowledge, but still desiring something beyond engineering (and a chance to understand the policies that often control engineering decisions) I became probably the only Public Policy Student to ever take engineering electives when I took graduate transportation planning courses during my MA here at Carleton. During my MA, I learned a lot about urban sustainability, city visioning, and other concepts that are never fleshed out in engineering, and I had a lot of time to knit while my classmates reviewed remedial math in my economics classes.

It was during the second year of my master’s that I was approached by a professor here in engineering about considering doing a PhD with him back in engineering. After some awkward conversations about my undergraduate marks (I was very close to a royal flush (where you have every possible grade) my first 3 years), I decided to go for it, and was accepted. So here I am, 4 years deep into a PhD in engineering. I’m sure some of my professors from undergrad would fall over from shock if they saw me here, and many people question the meandering path I’ve taken this far, but for the most part I am happy with my decisions. I have been to the dark side (arts), and back and the main thing it has taught me is that more people need to give it a try. My public policy classmates knew little of engineering (and one even told me to my face that because I am an engineer I must be illiterate), and many of my engineering colleagues know little about public policy and yet so much of the content of both are interconnected. Transportation, water treatment, waste management, pollution, buildings—just about every aspect of Civil Engineering is controlled by policy (not to mention affected by psychology, sociology, history, and other disciplines) and yet we all rarely take the time to study beyond our fields. Take my advice, try it out, and even if the dark side doesn’t always have cookies, they do have some different ways of thinking—which is almost as good.

     

Carleton at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2012

This year, I attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing for the fourth time. I find that there is always something new to get out of this conference and I am always glad I went.  This year, it was an especially special trip: being driving distance to Baltimore, I travelled there with my husband and 9-month-old baby girl.

My baby and I on our way to Grace Hopper.

I had been organizing a group of Carleton students to attend each year (see our posts from 2008, 2009, and 2010).  But, last year, I was too pregnant to fly to Portland, so I didn't go, and so I didn't organize anyone else, either.  This year I was on leave until September, so no other Carletonites at the conference this time, either.  (I did get to reunite with some past travel buddies who used to attend Carleton, though!)

I strongly believe that having a large Carleton presence at the conference is very good for us.  We usually go with our CU-WISE t-shirts and wear them together one of the conference days.  We also often try to get the executive members to attend so they can bond, making working together over the next year much more effective.  We always get excellent insights and ideas from how to run CU-WISE to neat outreach activities we can do (for example, Snap Circuits came from Grace Hopper!).  And, best of all, we get to promote Carleton University as an amazing place to study science and engineering as a woman.

I'll be posting about my experience over the next little while, and if you think this is something you want to experience next year in Minneapolis, get in touch with me via wise@carleton.ca.  The process starts early in the year, since we ask all attendees to apply for scholarships and/or volunteer positions to help cover costs.  Hope to see you there!

Congratulations to Natalie Linklater, Winner of CEMF Scholarship!

Our very own CU-WISE Outreach Officer Natalie Linklater has been awarded the national $15,000 Claudette MacKay-Lassonde scholarship from the Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation!

From the press release:

She has been selected from candidates across the country for the esteemed $15,000 scholarship which is awarded annually to the most promising women in a graduate engineering program at the PhD level in Canada. Natalie personifies the definitive qualities of the Claudette MacKay-Lassonde scholarship by not only achieving great personal success, but also through her many contributions to her community and the engineering profession.

“Through Natalie’s many successes in the engineering world and her community we can see she truly embodies the qualities that make her the ideal candidate for the Claudette MacKay-Lassonde scholarship. On behalf of CEMF we are thrilled to support her as an ambassador and as a leader to help break down barriers and educate women in Canada who are currently pursuing or considering a degree in engineering,” says CEMF president Huntley O’Connor, P.Eng

Congrats Natalie on this well-deserved award!

WIE at Carleton University

Check out this wonderful video about women in engineering at Carleton.  CU-WISE is mentioned a few times as well! :)

Carleton Students Win a Prize For Innovative and Challenging Mobile Game

I recently competed on a team with three other students from the School of Computer Science (Jamie Madill, Andrew Erdeg, and Jacob Agar) in the Great Canadian Appathon.  It was a 48-hour mobile game development competition.  Our team didn't place in the top three, but we did get a prize for the most technically challenging game! (I will admit that wasn't thanks to me - Jamie happened to be working on fluid simulation for his thesis and implemented it for the game.)

From the Carleton newsroom article:

The goal of the single player puzzle game is to fill coloured drains with matching fluids that takes full advantage of the interfaces offered by modern mobile devices. The player can dig trenches in the sand to channel the fluid by drawing shapes on the touch screen in the same way they would trace out shapes in the sand. In order to move the fluid, the player simply tilts the phone, causing it to spill down the channels. The challenge lies in not wasting fluid by channelling it down mismatched drains.

The most unfortunate part of the competition? There were hardly any female programmers! (I guess that's why the National Post featured me in one of their articles covering the event.) This was a great experience, so why not give it a shot at your next opportunity?

The Celebration of Women in Science and Engineering is Just Around the Corner!

Last year's Celebration was pretty awesome, but this year is going to be something special.  You see, we've made a big effort to ensure our talks are fun and exciting no matter what your background is.

So, for example, if you're in biology, you'll understand what the computer scientists and engineers are talking about.  Even if you aren't in science or engineering at all, you will enjoy what we have to offer!

Even better, we've invited a group of high school girls to be in our audience this year.  We've already got more than 25 signed up.  We're hoping that we can ignite a love of science and engineering in these students, and show them the awesome choice that Carleton is for post-secondary education.

The full schedule with talk titles and descriptions is now posted online, so go check it out and we'll see you on April 6!

What's it All About?

The link above describes it like this:

The Carleton Celebration of Women in Science and Engineering is a showcase of graduate students, faculty, and alumni of Carleton University. The number of women who enrol in many science and engineering programs is quite low, so the amazing things they do can easily go unnoticed. This day puts them in the spotlight.

The goal of this event is two-fold. First, we aim to provide networking opportunities for all female science and engineering students. Second, we would like to see members of the greater Carleton community and the general public attend these talks and learn about some of the great things happening in science and engineering. We want the world to know that there really are successful women in these fields!

This year's Celebration will showcase research and projects done by female students and faculty from Carleton in a way that is accessible to the general public, including high school students.

Everyone is invited!

Great Canadian Appathon

I wrote the following on my personal blog and thought the CU-WISE community might be interested in participating, too!

Carleton's Game Development Club is one of six host schools for the upcoming Great Canadian Appathon:

The Great Canadian Appathon is a chance for post-secondary students across Canada to showcase their skills in developing great games. Students can get together in teams of up to 4 people to hack their game together for 48 hours. The event is presented by XMG Studio and the National post. The Prizes are being sponsored by TELUS and the finale event is being sponsored by KPMG.

A few friends of mine were hoping I would join their team, and yesterday I finally decided that I would.  (I was a little worried about time because there are a few projects I have to wrap up in the next couple of months, but this looks like a really fun opportunity I don't want to miss.)

This is supposed to be one of those hackathon-type events where you work for 48 hours straight to come up with a game programmed completely within the allotted time.  I've never participated in any of these before.  The closest I've come is the one all-nighter we pulled for our school's notorious software engineering class project.  (And that's the only all-nighter I've ever done in my life!)  I'm a little nervous about it because that's not really how I work usually.  My eye problems alone make it impossible to work all night.

Luckily, it sounds like the plan is to design as much of the game ahead of time as possible, and maybe even prototype it.  Then the idea is to have us work in shifts with partners, so those who like working at night can.  According to the Appathon's rules, you don't even have to be on campus - you can work online if you want.  I don't know if it's a gender thing or just because we're getting older, but I personally really appreciate this flexibility.

The competition is happening March 11-13, so I'll post about our experience after that.  In the meantime, if you happen to be a student, consider giving it a shot yourself!

WISE Steps to Success a Big Success

This post originally appeared on my personal blog, The Female Perspective of Computer Science.

Last Wednesday CU-WISE held a professional development event called WISE Steps to Success for a second year.  It's one of our flagship events, and was designed to give women in science and engineering the networking, negotiation, and confidence skills we aren't taught in class.

From the event description:

There's more to success than just passing your courses. There are a lot of skills to be learned outside of the classroom that greatly contribute to your future. And the earlier you start learning them, the earlier you can reach your goals.

Carleton's WISE, IEEE WIE, and Career Services have joined forces to give you the career building essentials and help you stand out. Whether you are actively looking for a job or not, this is an event you don't want to miss. This year we have also teamed up with local organization Dress for Success.

The event is free for Carleton's women in sciences and engineering, and will include a light dinner and dessert. You will hear from experts on networking, the importance of making a great first impression, dressing for success, confidence building, and negotiation skills. You will also have the opportunity to speak to mentors from academia and industry, to meet other students in your field, and to practice your skills.

This event was a huge success.  We had great attendance by both Carleton students and industry and academic mentors.  We saw a lot of networking happening during the breaks between talks, and the three speakers were amazing.



Best of all, I didn't even have to organize the event - four amazing Executives and Officers did it all! I got to play event photographer instead. ;)  You can see more photos from the event on Flickr.

The Speakers

Moyra McDill, a professor in engineering at Carleton, spoke about her experiences being the first woman to graduate with a degree from Mechanical Engineering at Carleton.  She told us about the "life rocks" philosophy.  She started with an empty measuring cup and added large rocks representing the most important things in her life, like family.  She then added smaller rocks into the spaces, sand in the remaining spaces, and water after all of that.  The point was that it's amazing how much you can fit into your life; just start with the big rocks, because you can't put those in after the sand/water/small stuff is already in there.



Next up was Andrew Moizer with an enthusiastic message about self-confidence and some tips on negotiation.  He encouraged everyone to step out of their comfort zone often.  I personally enjoyed his story very much, as he went from a big-wig in high tech to an entrepreneur with his own cattle farm. Talk about outside the comfort zone! What's really cool is his farm and cafe are in a small town my family and I visit frequently (it's on the other side of us from Ottawa).  I'm looking forward to visiting his and his wife's cafe soon.



Finally, by chance, a friend of mine was our last speaker.  Louise Grace came on behalf of Dress for Success Ottawa, whose mission is "to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life."  She told us about what Dress for Success does and then gave us tips on making the best first impression possible.  Her fashion advice was practical and reasonable, which I always appreciate, being someone who isn't all that into clothes.  I will always remember to check my shoes for salt stains before an important meeting or interview now thanks to Louise. ;)

National Conference on Women in Engineering

This past month I had the pleasure of attending the National Conference on Women in Engineering as a delegate representing Carleton University. This weekend long conference was hosted by the University of Ottawa and was inspired by the theme of ‘Expanding Horizons’. The aim of the weekend was to celebrate the accomplishments and achievements of women in the male dominated field of engineering, as well as to better understand and be prepared for the challenges that women face in the workforce. The conference was an inspiring way for a young female engineering student to spend the weekend and included keynote speakers, breakout sessions, a banquet, and networking opportunities.

I believe that most of the delegates will agree with me when I say that the highlight of the conference was listening to the experiences of the keynote speakers. Each speaker left a lasting impression through their personal story and words of wisdom. I would like to share some of the key takeaways from the speakers which helped them to become the successful women they are today:

- Recognize opportunities to demonstrate leadership
- Seek out people who think differently than you
- Set a goal – evaluate the tools you will need to attain it
- Be prepared – manage risk, commit, speak with credibility
- Don’t be afraid to change course based on your experiences
- Accept that you cannot control everything
- Be involved in your community

While at the conference, delegates had the opportunity to network with students from other universities from all across Canada (coast to coast!) This was a great way to talk about their respective engineering societies and to share ideas about how to increase the involvement and enrolment of women within engineering.

This conference made me feel very proud to be a woman in engineering. I can say with great certainty that NCWIE brought together future leaders of the engineering community and I am very hopeful for the opportunities which lie ahead for each and every one of these delegates.

Go ENG Girl

This past weekend I had a chance to share my passion for engineering when Go ENG Girl took place at Carleton University on Saturday October 16th. Go ENG Girl is hosted every year at universities across Ontario as an opportunity for girls in Grades 7-10 to learn more about the field of engineering.
The day started off with a welcome and keynote speakers. Students and their parents heard from women studying and practicing engineering and learned more about what it meant to be an engineer. The girls were introduced to the many types of engineering and the opportunities that could arise within the different fields.

While parents heard from a panel of speakers about such things as entrance requirements, academic support, campus life, and career expectations, the students headed off to participate in a hands-on activity.

The grade 7-8 students were given a small design project involving snap circuits. They were asked to create a morse code generator and were then given the freedom to create their own circuits. One group created a lie detector test in which the ‘liar’ would answer a question and then would be required to place their index finger and thumb at a given location on the circuit, which would then detect if they were in fact telling the truth. The detector would hum if they were telling the truth and would make a loud high pitched sound and flash a light if a lie was being told. The circuit detected a ‘lie’ if there was enough moisture on the finger or thumb from nerves and sweat. I have included a picture of this particular circuit. The grade 9-10 students had a chance to use their design solution skills as they were asked to create a catapult which would launch a small mass the greatest distance while having a cost effective design with minimal materials. The projects were presented to the parents and it was clear that there were some future engineers among us!

Students and their parents were given a pizza lunch while being able to browse engineering exhibits and speak with current students. Lunch was followed by an engineering lab tour where some of Carleton’s engineering and research and project labs could be seen.

Go ENG Girl was measured a success when the girls whose parents had ‘forced them to come’ had declared that they would be returning next year and had become interested and excited about engineering. It was very rewarding to volunteer at an event where I could help answer student’s questions and be a representative for my field of study.

I strongly encourage prospective students to seek out opportunities to learn more about their educational interests – it is never too early to start! I also encourage current students to find ways in which to become involved in sharing their experiences and passions – it is never too late to start!

The DaRosa lab is competing in "Dance your PhD"

Followers of our twitter and facebook feeds or even the university press releases have already heard, but for those who haven't seen this great video yet, the DaRosa lab at Carleton is a finalist in a contest called "Dance your PhD":

The dreaded question. "So, what's your Ph.D. research about?" You could bore them with an explanation. Or you could dance.

That's the idea behind "Dance Your Ph.D." Over the past 3 years, scientists from around the world have teamed up to create dance videos based on their graduate research.

Check out their dance, which teaches you about Maureen McKeague's work on "Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment." (Long name, but it's a fun and innovative way to explain some chemistry!)

Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using SELEX from Maureen McKeague on Vimeo.

McKeague's Ph.D. dance, based on her research at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, is about a technique called Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX). The target is a small molecule called homocysteine. SELEX uses natural selection to find the small strands of DNA called aptamers (the other dancers) that bind specifically to the target. Watch for the hilarious Taq Polymerase scene in the middle of the dance.

And when you're done watching, you can check out the other entrants and vote for your favourite (we hope it'll be chemistry!) on the sciencemag website. The results will be announced on October 19th.

Another year off to a good start

Last Wednesday CU-WISE welcomed its new and returning members to another year here at Carleton. With over 40 members in attendace this year's Kick Off event held at Carleton's own Oliver's Pub was a success. Delicious treats, lively conversation and a raffle draw for cool WISE swag opened this year's line up of WISE activities. We hope to see many of you coming out to the other events we are planning for this year. To stay in the loop check out our events page often or sign up for our newsletter.

A CU-WISE Primer

Welcome to all new and returning students and other supporters of Carleton's Women in Science and Engineering! This post is all about orienting you to what CU-WISE is all about. Whether you are just starting to get involved or have been around for a while, you will find something new.

What CU-WISE Is

As our website says, "Carleton University Women in Science and Engineering (CU-WISE) is a group of enthusiastic undergraduate and graduate students who encourage and support women to pursue an education or career in Science and Engineering."

We're a support network that helps ensure women who decide to come to Carleton to study science or engineering feel comfortable and know they can succeed. Many of our activities are centred on this goal. We also want to encourage younger girls to give science and engineering fair consideration, as seen through our participation in many outreach programs. We also exist because, sometimes, it's just nice to hang out with the girls. ;)

Executives and Officers

Executives and Officers work together to organize all the activities CU-WISE is involved in, from social gatherings to guest speakers to conference participation to mentoring to ... well, you get the point. ;) Executives are a smaller core team that are the last line of defence - they aren't more important than Officers, but are able to dedicate more time to CU-WISE.

If you're interested in joining the team, find out how to apply on our website.

Mailing List

If you haven't added your email to the mailing list yet, be sure to join now. Although all of our events will be posted online as well, there are many outside events and opportunities that we only include on the list. You don't want to miss some of the amazing things going on around town and at Carleton.

Website

The CU-WISE website is the hub of all our activity. You can join our mailing list, check out our upcoming and past events, learn about various awesome opportunities (like scholarships and conferences), and sign up to be a mentor or find a mentor. A bunch of our documents are available for download, and you can peek at our latest blog posts. Basically, if you aren't sure where to look, check here first.

Facebook, Twitter, Flickr

If you're on Facebook, you can become a fan of our CU-WISE page. Not everything on the mailing list ends up here so you'll still want to join that, but we do post interesting stories that don't appear on the newsletter.

If you aren't into Facebook, you can follow us on Twitter instead. Most of the content is the same, but we may soon have some dedicated Twitterers who will make things even more interesting.

If you want to see photos from CU-WISE events, check out our Flickr group. Even better, you are more than welcome to join it yourself. We encourage you to add your own photos to the group pool for all to enjoy!

Mentoring

Brand new this year is our formal mentoring program. If you'd like to mentor someone or find a mentor yourself, sign up today. This program will only work if you participate. We also want to make sure your mentoring relationship succeeds, and will provide you with all the resources you need. We are even working on hosting at least one social event per semester where mentors and mentees can get together in person and network with others in the program.

Please note that you can be a mentor even if you are still a student. For example, you might be a grad student who'd like to mentor an undergrad considering continuing her education.

Questions? Comments?

If you have any ideas on how CU-WISE should be run or want to suggest events or other activities, you can always email us, or just leave a comment to this post. Hope to see you at our Kick-Off Meet and Greet!

New CU-WISE Mural Design!

I am happy to announce that a project that began half a year ago as a mere thought is finally coming to fruition. The project? The new WISE mural for the Carleton University tunnels!

Thank you so much to Daphne Ong, the recipient of a WISE T-shirt and a $25 Carleton Book Store gift certificate, for submitting her great ideas for the mural contest. With her help the design for a new mural shown here was developed and will hopefully decorate the tunnels by this fall. I would also like to thank fellow CU-WISE Officer Payal Bhatia for her inspirational ideas.

Celebration a Success!

Wow. Our Carleton Celebration of Women in Science and Engineering last week was AMAZING. I ended up writing it up on my own blog before I had the chance to write here:

My main goals were to showcase what the Carleton ladies in science and engineering have been up to, and to give us an opportunity for us to network, since WISE spans so many technical and scientific disciplines. I think we succeeded on both counts!

Read the rest here!

Celebration of Women in Science and Engineering is TOMORROW!

I can't believe the Carleton Celebration of Women in Science and Engineering is finally here. Less than 20 hours from now, I'll have arrived on campus to set up and get ready for the welcome note!

I'm really proud of what we've accomplished with this event. In only about a month, we put out a call for proposals, got more amazing abstracts than we could schedule in our original time frame, somehow put together a schedule that worked, booked a wonderful meal for speakers and their guests after the event, and got the word out to the Carleton and Ottawa communities. Just this morning I came back from recording an interview with Terri about the event to be played on CBC tomorrow morning!

If you are anywhere near the Carleton campus, it would be well worth your time to take a few minutes and listen to a few of our speakers. Pick a topic you're interested in and see what cool research is being done. Come to the professional development talks later in the day. Have your say at the round table discussion happening in the evening.

A full schedule of the talks and their abstracts are available on our website.

I sincerely hope to see you there!

How the WISE Steps to Success event came to be - Part 2

Barbara posted earlier this month on "How the WISE Steps to Success event came to be" and I just wanted to add some comments from my perspective.

I had attended quite a few workshops, network events, and career fairs put on by Carleton's Career Development and utilized some of their other services such as resume reviewing and mock interviews. For those of you that have not taken advantage of these, I urge you to do so, they are usually a fun break from school and very useful. Also, if you aren't aware, you maintain free access to these services as alumni, which is awesome. Again, I'd encourage everyone to start attending these events before you graduate though as there are far fewer services offered during the summer and you want to transition into the working world with full confidence in your professional skills.

As I was saying, I had taken part in a lot of these events, but found there was something missing. I often felt like I could use some more specific advice for my discipline of engineering and for being a woman in a male dominated field.

In terms of the gender issue, as an example, I feel like I'm in a different position than my male counterparts when it comes to networking. At a workshop I attended on networking, we were advised to first take a tour of the room to subtly see who was there and who you wanted to meet. However, when I go to an event in my field, I walk into the room and notice immediately that there are only one or two other women in the room and the rest are men. This can be quite intimidating and make you feel self-conscious. It seems like it would be very hard to walk around the room without other people noticing. I know there must be ways to turn this to an advantage, and those are the kinds of tips I was looking for.

Other workshops I'd attended did not have enough time to be customized to each attendee's background. For instance, when it comes to negotiating your salary, someone with a science or engineering degree is in a very different position than someone with a different degree and there are huge differences in starting salaries within the science and engineering disciplines. Furthermore, I was unsure of how a graduate degree should impact my salary expectations.

I had attended a salary negotiation seminar by APEGBC for women in engineering during my undergrad at UBC, and this addressed a lot of issues that I think are important. Woman continue to be underpaid on average as compared to their male equivalents in the engineering fields. I think this is ridiculous nowadays, but I don't believe it is generally intentional or due to discrimination. My understanding of the issue is that women (on average) take a less aggressive approach to negotiating their starting salary and this sets them on a lower course throughout their career. Of course there are other issues that come into play later on, such as taking time off for maternity leave or choosing not to pursue higher paying, more time consuming position, but in terms of entrance salaries fresh out of school, I see no reason why women and men shouldn't be earning equivalent salaries.

So I felt that Carleton could use an event similar to the one I had attended in my undergrad to address these issues. I feel it's important for WISE Carleton members to learn about how to be assertive in the professional world, have confidence in themselves, and earn what they deserve. That's why I approached career services and helped get the ball rolling for what culminated in the WISE Steps to Success event two weeks ago.

I hope those of you that attended enjoyed the event and that all of you make use of the career services offered at Carleton and elsewhere.

Carleton Celebration of Women in Science and Engineering

Ever since I attended my first Grace Hopper in 2008, I've dreamt of having our own celebration here at Carleton, no matter how small. My dream is finally coming true. I'm very excited to announce the very first (and hopefully annual) Carleton Celebration of Women in Science and Engineering!

The idea with this event is to bring together Carleton women who are studying or working in any science or engineering discipline, and share with each other and the rest of the Carleton community what we've been up to. After the talks, the idea is to get the speakers together for dinner on us. The Celebration will be a wonderful opportunity to network and to socialize. It is important to show ourselves that we are not alone and that we do amazing things!

So take a look at our Call for Proposals, and consider being a speaker! You don't need to be an expert - you just have to share something interesting you've been doing lately. Only a short description of what you want to talk about it required, so what do you have to lose?

What Toastmasters Can Do For You

This is a guest post by Shirley McKey, ISSNet Director of Operations at the School of Computer Science. I spoke with her recently about her involvement with Toastmasters, and could tell how enthusiastic she was about it. CU-WISE members hoping to gain leadership and communication skills, and get more opportunities to network, should definitely check it out!

I have been a member of Toastmasters since 2003 and am convinced that you will flourish as a communicator and a leader if you follow the program provided by this international organization. The communication and leadership program offered through Toastmasters provides outstanding and economical professional development.

Carleton Toastmasters meets every Wednesday at 6:55 p.m. in 3324 Mackenzie Building on the Carleton Campus. Please join us to learn how you can use this proven program of professional development to enhance your communication and leadership skills and gain confidence in yourself and your abilities.

Toastmasters International is a world leader in helping people become more competent and comfortable in front of an audience. The nonprofit organization now has nearly 250,000 members in more than 12,500 clubs in 106 countries, offering a proven – and enjoyable – way to practice and hone communication and leadership skills.

Most Toastmasters meetings are comprised of approximately 20 people who meet weekly for an hour or two. Participants practice and learn skills by filling a meeting role, ranging from giving a prepared speech or an impromptu one to serving as timer, evaluator or grammarian. There is no instructor; instead, each speech and meeting is critiqued by a member in a positive manner, focusing on what was done right and what could be improved. Good communicators tend to be good leaders.

For more information, please e-mail guests@carleton.freetoasthost.info or visit www.carletontm.ca (Carleton Club), www.tm61.org (District 61) or www.toastmasters.org (Toastmasters International). We look forward to seeing you.