Fairmont State University’s Future SWE Chapter
Being a woman in any field of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) can feel isolating at times since these fields are typically male-dominated. Society of Women Engineers (SWE) combats this problem by giving women a unique voice and place within the engineering industry. There is not yet an officially recognized SWE chapter at Fairmont State, but there is a group of women at Fairmont State that want to create one. While this group is not officially recognized by the SWE as a chapter yet, the group still meets and has officers. Leann Rakes, the President of this future SWE chapter, says that their goal as a group is “to build a support system for women in STEM and to help them gain skills to better navigate working in a male-dominated field”.
To build this support system, Leann says that members of the Fairmont SWE group make efforts to reach out to women in their engineering and STEM classes and notify them that their SWE chapter is there to support them. This support can come in the form of studying together or helping one another when someone is stuck on a tough problem or concept in class. Apart from building a support system, another one of SWE’s goals is to get young girls interested in the STEM field. Leann says that “creating an open dialogue of “Hey, this is how I ended up in the field, do you have any questions?” gets girls talking about and interested in the fields of STEM”. Often, young women do not even consider STEM fields as an option for a future career, and SWE looks to put the idea of this career path in their heads. This is why Fairmont State’s SWE chapter will be largely focused on-campus, but they plan to incorporate Fairmont’s surrounding high schools in their activities to show young women that a field of STEM may be the right course of study for them.
While the meeting structure has not changed much for the group, it is difficult for the Fairmont State’s SWE group to recruit members during COVID. Recruiting new members through classes is difficult, as many are opting to stay online. Also, one of the biggest sources of possible new members, freshmen, is very hard to recruit as many are staying home as well. Fairmont State’s SWE group is largely focused on recruitment right now to try to combat the struggle of getting new members over their other goal of getting younger women interested in STEM. Leann says “For an SWE chapter, it typically would be both recruiting people and getting people interested in STEM but right now it’s primarily, ‘You’re already interested in STEM?’ Let’s grab you.”
Having an SWE chapter at Fairmont State will provide a very valuable resource for all the women in STEM at Fairmont State. They will be able to have a built-in support system of women that not only share their common passion of engineering but they also have a set of people helping them reach and accomplish their future career goals in the engineering field. Leann says about her own experience with SWE “It’s been great to have other women help support me in things that I might not know how to do or know that I should do, and I get to watch other women who are years further in their career ask questions about the field that I never would have even thought to ask.”
