Last weekend, I volunteered to be on a Society of Women Engineers college panel for high school students from neighborhood schools at the USC MESA College Day event. It was meant to show students what college is like, the event had industry representatives from Disney, Northrup Grumman as well as admissions officers from various universities across the country.
One of my favorite things about SC is that I can get my hands dirty with the number of community outreach opportunities available. As college graduates, we have so much to offer students who are considering a college path, especially those interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields. You are an inspiration just by being there. For me, giving back through volunteering is not only rewarding, but almost an imperative.
Plus, it’s easy, fun, and free. You earn good “karma” and get an ego boost simultaneously. Who doesn’t want all that?!
This was definitely the case at the MESA event. A majority of the girls who attended the panel were considering majoring in engineering (yay!) and had questions on what it’s like to be a woman in engineering, how tough classes are, or how good do you have to be at math (answer: just good enough to get by with help from peers and Teaching Assistants). Sometimes it was telling them about the simple things, like making sure they meet the scholarship application deadline. Having candid conversations with college students who had successfully gone through the process made a huge difference.
I can’t wait for the Engineering is SWEll event hosted by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) in a couple of weeks.
If you’re interested in volunteering, here are just a few of the MANY student organizations that do outreach, and the Viterbi School of Engineering itself: https://viterbi.usc.edu/k-12/uscstudents/
1. Alpha Phi Omega fraternity
2. Interaxon
3. Jumpstart USC
4. SWE – Society of Women Engineers
5. Troy Camp
Published on November 11th, 2015
Last updated on August 29th, 2017