2014 - Retrospective and Resolution

A brand new year is upon us! I thought it would only be fitting to write a retrospective post on how my CU-WISE experience has gone in 2013. [Yes, I’m the kind of person who does retrospectives, looks back on events, tracks opportunities for improvements and celebrates achievements!]. So, ladies and gentlemen fasten your seat belts, we are about to time travel!!! 

It all started in September 2013! I was new at Carleton and looking for some extra curricular activities. I've always been interested in encouraging girls in engineering and couldn't resist when I discovered that CU-WISE was looking for volunteers for the Throwback Kids Activities. I met wonderful ladies who volunteered as well and the experience was quite memorable. It’s outstanding how little kids can remind you all you love about what you do, and re-sparkle your interest. I was in charge of the Snap Circuits activity [By the way, I still can’t believe that Santa never got me one of those electronic snap circuits!] which is a great and fun way to learn about electronics and get a working project (From adjustable light control to FM Radio).

Testing her flying saucer, Snap Circuits at the Throwback Kids Activities

Go Eng Girl took place shortly after. We had girls in grades 7 to 10 come to learn more about engineering. This event included hands-on design projects.This time, I was leading the Scratch team. Scratch is a tool developed by MIT that uses simple blocks and offers an easy way to learn programming. For this activity, we asked students to implement their own interactive story/game. Again, young minds amazed us with creative ideas and projects.

The girl who amazed us all, SCRATCH at Go ENG Girl 2013

Finally, the Woman in Research Event was held in mid December. The event invites High School girls to hear from Carleton leading female researchers about what inspired them to go into science and engineering. It’s always awesome to volunteer for this kind of event as you might be inspired along the way. And that’s what happened to me! Every speaker made me realize that we are not fully aware of our capabilities and we have to keep going [Keep in mind that doing it right doesn't always feel like it] :

Keynote Speakers, Women In Research Event 2013

• “Engineering is for everyone!” Dr Cynthia Cruickshank
• “Education is important and it’s an investment in you!” Natalie Linklater
• “I didn’t know that I had that capability! You have to tell yourself that you can do it.” Dr Winnie Ye

The point : All the presenters turned out to be just as human as you and me! They all faced struggles, doubts and setbacks but kept going and achieved the amazing results that you can read on each biography!

Along the way, I became more than a volunteer and joined the WISE team. 

So, if you are looking for a resolution for 2014, volunteering for WISE might be a great one! Imagine the university becoming a place where you can inspire, be inspired and leave a legacy… How awesome would it be? 

Happy New Year!

Stay great,
Daniella

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Daniella is a Master's student in Electrical and Computer Engineering. One of her dreams is to inspire more women to embrace STEM careers and unleash their full potential. Although she is hardworking and can be very serious, she enjoys comedy and dancing, has a big sense of humour, and believes that a little kindness goes a long way!

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!

9 good bits of advice I've gotten as a student

I'm (hopefully) in the last year of my PhD, and along the way, I've gotten a lot of good advice from people at Carleton: students, profs, admin staff. Here's a few bits that I'd like to share:

1. Making friends is important, not only for your sanity but also for academic success in later years. You need people you can trust for those group projects!
   
   
2. If your TA can't speak English, complain. A few years ago, they made it possible for TAs to be sent to remedial English training. It's free for the TA, and they don't lose their future TA jobs, so you're pretty much doing everyone a favour by helping them learn to do their job better.
   
   
3. It may seem that everyone else is way ahead of you in class. But actually, a lot of other people are just stupidly arrogant. You're probably way more awesome than you think, and other people are probably struggling with the same things you struggle with.
   
   
4. Your course schedule may not work out every year. If you're in a smaller degree program, you might even find that it's not possible to complete your degree without substituting things because your required courses are offered at the same time! If you run up against a wall, talk to the undergraduate/graduate advisor in your department. They can help figure out what to do.
   
   
5. If you have any problem with registration or any other administrative thing, make sure to talk to the admin staff in person. Our administrative staff is excellent, and they can solve a lot of problems that the computer systems deem impossible. Just remember to be polite, and try to show up when they're not busy!
   
   
6. You can skip classes by challenging for credit. It costs money, but can get you out of stuff that would be a waste of your time. That said, easy As are great ways to buoy up your scholarship marks if you're willing to sit around being bored. (that's what I did in first year.)
   
   
7. You can take upper year classes early, sometimes without prerequisites, if you're willing to work for it. Sit in on the first few classes and then ask the prof to sign the necessary paperwork when you're more sure, or just ask them for their advice. You can also take graduate courses as an undergraduate! (I did this, and it's how I wound up doing graduate school!) Graduate courses sometimes have an easier workload than the undergraduate ones, but you'll have to do a lot more independent thinking, so be prepared!
   
   
8. If you're struggling in a class very early on, it's perfectly ok to drop classes and take them later. Sometimes the prof's teaching style won't mesh with your learning style and you should take it with someone else, sometimes you're just too busy with other courses. Before you drop anything, though, make sure you do it properly in the system before the drop date so you don't get an F, make sure you can take the class later or substitute another class, and make sure it's not a prerequisite that will mess up your schedule for the next term!
   
   
9. Find a few good places to hang out and spend more time on campus. Having a place you can sit where you can let off steam with a game of cards, meet up with your friends, curl up on a couch for an hour, or even just buy cheaper snacks/coffee can be invaluable. I lived off-campus as an undergraduate and tended to go home frequently in my first year, but I didn't really find a love for Carleton until I started hanging out with the Math Society.
   

And nowadays, obviously I recommend you all join WISE, too!

So welcome to the new students this year! And for those of you returning, I'm sure you've gotten some great advice too. Got anything you'd like to share?

Ready, set, go!

The CU-WISE blog has been launched.

Welcome to our new blog!

I've been getting very excited about setting up our very own CU-WISE blog, and am very pleased that it has now been launched. All executive members of CU-WISE will be contributing news and information to this space. We hope to tell you about how the group is progressing toward fulfilling the mission and vision, what kinds of events we have hosted and will be hosting, and other interesting and relevant tidbits from around the net. So be sure to subscribe to the feed and enjoy the ride!