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WiE Newsletter - November 2021 - ISSUE 24
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Front and Center News from the Director
I want to start out by thanking the generous donors who provided financial support to the Center, making a difference in the lives of many SEAS students.
These contributions to the Center enabled us to support students' travel to professional conferences, enriching their engineering journeys and providing them new opportunities. In fact, more than a dozen young women traveled to the annual national meeting for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and more than three dozen virtually attended the annual Grace Hopper Conference (GHC). Two SWE attendees -- student researchers Dami Oke, BME Master's Student; and Jinbi Tian, BME '22 -- gave research presentations and each received a research award.
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In case you are not aware, the SWE National Conference is the world's largest conference for women in engineering and technology. SWE21's main focus this year was: Aspire to Inspire. Among the sponsors this year were Rolls-Royce, Intel, Northrop Grumman, Ecolab, and many others. Our students reported the excitement of listening to two keynotes: Stephanie C. Hill, Executive Vice President of Rotary and Mission Systems at Lockheed Martin, and Barbara Humpton, President and CEO of Siemens US. All attendees got to be a part of SWE history as the Mayor of Indianapolis, Joe Hogsett, officially declared October 22 the Society of Women Engineers Day for the city of Indianapolis!
The students who attended the Grace Hopper Conference (GHC), which is not as broadly targeted as SWE, focused more on academic discipline and careers. One student noted, “I learned about the impact of technology and the sectors that rely on it. There were talks on how tech can answer public health emergency calls (contact tracing for COVID), making tech more accessible and inclusive, BUT also how to make strategic moves in your career. Keeping these in mind, I want to help change the landscape in tech by building tech that is inclusive, and to think more critically about the impacts that my work has on others."
One of the biggest reasons WiE supports students' attendance at national meetings is their opportunity to interact with potential employers for internships and jobs, as well as to scope out the landscape for post-baccalaureate education. The students met with recruiters and participated in on-site interviews, and many participated in career fairs offered.
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We hosted two outstanding events in October.
Our Research Journeys featured four amazing SEAS student researchers. Bengisu ŞİŞİK, a PhD student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and WiE's newest Advisory Board member, moderated the panel, which included Rachel Gray (PhD student in MAE), Chandraman Patil (Masters Student in ECE) and Elena Korkes (Senior in CS). The students spoke about the opportunities to put theory into practice and to see themselves as accomplished engineers. But, they were honest in speaking about the challenges as well – whether it was time management, learning to deal with critiques of their work, or remaining persistent in the face of adversity. They ended the hour with encouragement for students to use their network, reach out to faculty, and talk to other research students as they seek their own niche.
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The second webinar was presented in conjunction with our GW/SEAS Gen-Cyber Middle School Students Cybersecurity Day Camp reunion (now that was a mouthful!). The focus of the presentation, by Sophia Choukas-Bradley of the University of Delaware, was “The Perfect Storm: Social Media Use and Adolescent Girls' Body Image Concerns.”
Nearly 20 million girls subscribe to Instagram world-wide; nearly a third of teen girls said in a survey that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse. The story is one of algorithm manipulation as well as peer pressure and the impact of visuals that just grab us and don't let us look away.
I was most taken with Dr. Choukas-Bradley’s likening of social media to a slot machine, as she explained why we keep going back to it. Like a slot machine, there is no reward every time we visit, but there are random rewards (something we like, someone liked us, etc.) and that sustains us. Dr. Choukas Bradley has asked us not to post our recording of the event, so if this topic is interesting to you, please contact us and we can share the recording.
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As noted above, the Center's budget is buoyed by support from our Advisory Board, our faculty, and our GW SEAS alumni. Thank you! Our October fundraising campaign raised more than $6,000, which will go a long way to continuing to support WiE's programs.
Stay safe!
Shelly Heller
WiE Director
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Engineering Isn't Just Technical
On November 17 at noon Eastern time, the Center will host Professor Lorrie Faith Cranor of the Carnegie Mellon University for a lively virtual presentation “Who Says Engineering Isnt Creative?” Engineering students have a lot to learn! But it doesn't all have to be books, lectures and labs. Dr. Lorrie Faith Cranor is living proof of a career that is so much more. Tap into your creative side as Dr. Cranor highlights her parallel journeys spanning academia, industry, government service, entrepreneurship, research, writing, thought leadership, security and privacy expert, quilting, yoga, soccer, music and motherhood.
Come prepared with your questions for this interactive, fun webinar.
The webinar will be held Friday, November 19 at 12:00 pm ET. NOTE: You will receive the link to the Zoom webinar after registering.
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A GW Alumna You Should KnowWIE is proud of Sasha Pailet Koff, BS '97, a GW alum, who was recently promoted to VP of Supply Chain Technology (SCT) Consumer Health at Johnson & Johnson. In this role, Sasha leads the organization responsible for SCT activities which include all Consumer Health SC areas, Planning, Procurement, Quality, Manufacturing (30 plants globally) and Delivery, along with end-to-end Data-Cyber Security. Sasha's career has included roles of increasing responsibility in both Supply Chain and Commercial functions, with a focus on identifying, developing, and deploying digital products to achieve transformational business outcomes. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Sasha worked for Rohm & Haas (now Dow), Accenture and at the White House.
She holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from The George Washington University, an MBA from Columbia University, and professional designations of CPA, CGMA and PMP.
When not at work, Sasha is involved in numerous philanthropic efforts including Director of the Bruce J. Heim Foundation, Metro West Jewish Federation and as a volunteer with FIRST. She enjoys sailing, travel, bike riding and hiking. Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, she now lives in northern New Jersey with her husband and their two children.
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What We Are Reading
Inside Higher Ed published an article indicating "savvy students" seek mentors (a theme which was also noted by our student researchers in the recent webinar noted above). While mentoring is important and supported by WiE, the recent survey concluded that access may not be as easy as we think.
- Students who graduated from private high schools or who attend private colleges, and legacy students (although legacies were a small part of the sample), are most likely to report having had a mentor.
- One in five students without a mentor says that’s so because they don’t have access to a formal mentoring program, while nearly nine in 10 of those who participated in such programs were at least somewhat satisfied with them.
- Three-quarters of students needed, or would want, career advice from a mentor, with about two-thirds of those who have had mentors reporting they did get help in this area.
On a somewhat somber note, a New York Times op-ed by Jessica Nordell and Yaryna Serkez (October 19, 2021) foreshadowing their book “The End of Bias: A Beginning,” laid out a very depressing landscape. “Subtle biases and microaggressions pile up, few of which on their own rise to the level of ‘let’s take action,’ but are insidious nonetheless.” For this very reason, the Center has hosted programs addressing unconscious bias and microaggressions. What was not painfully clear until now is how much every-day sexism matters.
Together with Kenny Joseph, a computer science professor at the University at Buffalo, a graduate student, Yuhao Du, created a computer simulation of a workplace and — spoiler alert! — the outcome is depressing. Here is just one example: “With just 3 percent bias, one employee — let’s call her Jenelle — starts in an entry-level position, and makes it to the executive level, but it takes her 17 performance review cycles (eight and a half years) to get there, and she needs 208 successful projects to make it “William” starts at the same level, but he gets to executive level much faster — after only eight performance reviews and half Jenelle’s successes at the time she becomes an executive.”
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