It’s May. For those of us on the grading side of finals it is a very busy time. Preparing exams, compiling grades, basking in our students’ accomplishments, hooding PhDs, shaping seniors hands, meeting their parents! For students it is all those things and stress as well, a bit of cramming, a bit of pride in their accomplishments, and looks ahead to summer adventures as interns, research assistants, jobs to make extra dollars for fall or just vegetating for a while.

The center, too, is looking forward to the summer as we plan for the fall. Here is where we need your input about our plans, and/or additional ideas (contact us at scwie@gwu.edu). The list is not in a specific order or importance

New Programming

1) We will prepare and present a series of workshops for our incoming freshman class and for our SEASpan and Learning Assistants (LAs) and GTA (Graduate Teaching Assistants) concerning the presence of unconscious bias, its impact on teamwork, and how to resolve this for your teams so that you are all able to do the best you can.

2) We will prepare and present a workshop for our undergraduate seniors, our graduating graduate students and for our alumni on the concept of Imposter Syndrome and how one might address it.

3) Broadening participation in engineering is a major goal of the Center and statements or plans are necessary for many funding applications. We will prepare and help the departments design and institutionalize broadening participation plans that might include outreach to local high schools, working with faculty at community colleges, providing other support for the pipeline of potential engineers.

4) WiE believes that having allies of all different identities will enhance collaboration in the classroom and the work place. To that end, we plan to broaden our outreach and work on a series of programs around allyship. 

Continued Programming

5)  Our student faculty interviews. Is there a faculty member you want to us to profile - let us know!

6) Our Meet Our Faculty webinar. Is there a faculty member whose research and interaction with research students you would like to hear from - let us know!

7) Review and upgrade our mentoring program.

Changes to our support structure

8) In addition to our dedicated board of advisors, both internal and external, we will be forming a student advisory board made up of current undergraduate and graduate students for the specific purpose of working on joint programming. 

9) As many of you know, WiE provides financial support to send students to professional conferences. As we want our students to be prepared and make the most of their conference experience, WiE will be collaborating with the SEAS Center for Career Services on some pre-conference workshops about networking, "elevator pitch", and other relevant topics.


We will be busy - so we expect fewer newsletters this summer. - Less reading for you and more time for us.

With best wishes for a safe, healthy and inspiring Spring and Summer!

Dr. Shelly Heller
WiE Center Director