When I was in high school I enjoyed challenging myself in school. I had always done very well in math but never really enjoyed my language arts or history classes. So, when considering what major to study in college I decided to continue the challenge and study engineering. But I never considered the concern about being a woman entering a male dominated field. In fact, I considered that being a woman in engineering would be a great advantage for me when it came time to look for internships and jobs in the future. I think being a woman in engineering has been great! It’s allowed me to get to know the other girls in engineering much better and as a result are some of my best friends!
I’m sure you know by now that I am in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). SWE is a Viterbi organization that strives to support students in engineering professionally, through networking dinners, and in the community, through volunteer workshops for students in elementary schools. I won’t write much more about SWE so that I don’t repeat myself. But if you click on the links below to some of my previous blogs, you can find out more about the networking and social events I’ve attended by being apart of SWE. In addition, one of the benefits of being apart of SWE is that you automatically get to take advantage of CED’s resources as well which include a private study space, computers, and free printing. The thing that I love most about SWE are the other girls. Being on the officer council has allowed me to get to know some of the other members better and in return we’ve all become great friends. Even though SWE has about 200 members, the girls I’ve met from SWE are some of my best friends here at USC and we are always hanging out and going to different USC events with each other.
Alpha Omega Epsilon (AOE), the Engineering Sorority, is another way for women in engineering to get involved at USC. I’m not actually in the sorority but quite a few of my friends are in it. The difference between AOE and most other sororities is that AOE is a professional sorority. This means that they not only plan social events, like going to dinners or weekend retreats, but they also focus on the professional side of things as well, like networking events with alumni. AOE only has about 20-30 members so they’re much smaller than all the other sororities on campus. This is nice if you prefer a smaller organization that allows you to get to know all of your sisters better.
Here is a link to USC’s AOE website: http://uscaoe.org/
Here is a link to USC’s SWE website: http://www-scf.usc.edu/~sweusc/
Here is a link to USC’s CED website: http://viterbi.usc.edu/ced/
Here are a couple links to past blogs that I’ve written about SWE and CED:
https://viterbivoices.usc.edu/ashlyn/society-of-women-engineers-evening-with-industry/
https://viterbivoices.usc.edu/ashlyn/my-favorite-student-involvment-society-of-women-engineers/
https://viterbivoices.usc.edu/ashlyn/ced-accenture-event/
https://viterbivoices.usc.edu/ashlyn/swe-officers-la-live-dnner/
