WEPAN Newsletter February 2025

Free Program to Help Move Your Business Forward

WEPAN is partnering with Verizon as part of their Small Business Digital Ready program, a free program designed to give small businesses more tools to succeed. It’s personalized and easy to use, with all the information online in one place.

Sign up for the platform and engage with a combination of two free videos or events to become eligible for $10K grant opportunities offered at least four times per year.

The videos and events cover topics like branding, cybersecurity, managing money, legal essentials for small businesses, and more. The events also include opportunities to connect 1:1 with business coaches and experts for feedback on areas where you could use some extra guidance. Plus, the platform has a growing database of external funding and financing opportunities. Sign up through our link, and you also help WEPAN!

Events

Join WEPAN at Our Synergiiize Summit in North Carolina

WEPAN would like to invite you to be a part of our Synergiiize innovation and entrepreneurship initiative. Whether you’re an innovator or a supporter of inclusive innovation, Synergiiize has something for you!

Join us for WEPAN’s inaugural Synergiiize Summit at the Sheraton Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, NC on April 3-5, 2025!

The Synergiiize Summit is a two-day intensive professional development summit that brings together innovators and entrepreneurs with investors, funders, entrepreneurship support organizations, and intellectual property and technology transfer professionals who want to leverage their position and influence to drive change across the STEM innovation ecosystem. Check out the latest agenda and register here!

If you have any questions about the Synergiiize Summit, please contact heather@wepan.org.

Synergiiize is led by WEPAN in partnership with the American Association of Colleges and Universities, AISES: Advancing Indigenous People in STEM, and Graduate Fellowships for STEM Diversity, and is supported by funding from the Small Business Administration and Qualcomm.

News

Congratulations to our 2025 WEPAN Award Winners

Congratulations to our 2025 WEPAN Award Winners! WEPAN Awards honor accomplishments that underscore WEPAN’s mission of advancing cultures of inclusion and diversity in engineering higher education and workplaces.

For a full bio and list of all awardees, please visit wepan.org/wepan-awards

Free Resume Critique with the WEPAN Career Center

The WEPAN Career Center is a premiere resource to connect career opportunities with qualified engineering industry professionals. Whether you're searching for jobs or finding candidates, the WEPAN Career Center offers a wealth of resources to help members achieve their career goals.

One of these resources is a FREE resume critique service, which offers a resume review by a resume-writing expert.  While it's important that a resume is current and complete, it's also important that it stands out.

Within a few days of submitting a resume, an evaluation is sent outlining strengths, weaknesses, and suggestions to ensure best chances of landing an interview.

The process is simple:

1. Click "Manage Resumes" under the Career Center Job Seekers tab
2. Click "Upload Resume File"
3. Choose the file to be uploaded
4. Click "YES" next to "submit my resume for a free evaluation from a trusted resume expert at TopResume”
5. On the pop-up window, click "Evaluate My Resume"
6. Proceed with the upload by clicking "Upload Resume"

Stand out to employers with a polished resume and increase your chances of landing your dream job! There are currently over 500 employers on the WEPAN Career Center, and over 1300 job openings.

WEPAN Listserv

Do you have something to tell the WEPAN community? Remember that subscription to the WEPAN-L listserv is a member benefit! Share announcements, post publication opportunities, and collaborate with colleagues from different institutions and organizations on special projects.

To subscribe to the WEPAN-L listserv, visit: lists.purdue.edu/mailman/listinfo/wepan-l

Resources

Publications, reports, or communications relevant to women in engineering and STEM equity. All resources listed below are available in the ARC Network online resource library. If you need help accessing the library, please contact ARC Librarian Bethany Farmer at bethany@wepan.org.  

• "Women in Interdisciplinary Engineering: Building a Foundation for Success in STEM Through Community and Curriculum" by M. Georges

"The findings reveal that early exposure to STEM, nurtured through family encouragement and educational initiatives, plays a crucial role in cultivating interest in engineering among women. Mentorship and role modeling emerge as pivotal in supporting women’s navigation through their engineering education, providing both inspiration and practical guidance."

Institutional WEPAN Membership

Want to encourage your institution to deepen its commitment to equity and excellence?

Consider becoming an Institutional Champion Member. At this membership level, institutions have unlimited member representatives who get to dive into critical diversity, equity, and inclusion issues through custom workshops. These members also get the opportunity to strengthen their inclusive leadership capacity as part of the Equity and Excellence Council. Additional Institutional Champion member benefits include:

• Professional Development
• Decades of resources in the WEPAN Knowledge Center
• Professional development webinars, including one featuring an invited speaker from your institution
• Free and discounted workshops, including one customized for your institution
• Free and discounted access to WEPAN’s Program Days
• Three annual convening registrations
• Communication & Networking
• WEPAN-L listserv
• Slack
• WEPAN member directory
• Social media spotlights of your institution
• Workforce
• Free and discounted job postings for your institution in WEPAN’s Career Center

For more information on how to become a WEPAN Institutional Member, please email membership@wepan.org.

WEPAN Slack Channel

Please join us on Slack to drive that connectivity across our membership during a critical time for connection. Join our Slack community today!

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