WEPAN Newsletter March 2025
Coming Soon - WEPAN Academy
Despite our country’s continued need to ensure a robust engineering workforce, for decades we have asked why so many women leave engineering. It has been well demonstrated that we can and should do more to retain women in our engineering workforce.
Over the past 35 years, the dedication of WEPAN’s leadership and community has resulted in amassed knowledge critical to advancing cultures of diversity and inclusion in engineering spaces. How do we make this knowledge more accessible and adaptable?
Coming soon - WEPAN Academy! Providing workforce development and retention education and training to ensure women can thrive in a robust engineering workforce.
Events
Join the Synergiiize Summit
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 4-5, 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
Free Program to Help Move Your Small 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!
ASEE $750 Stipend to Enhance Global Communication Skills
The Global Communication Competency in Engineering Project, sponsored by the ASEE International Division, invites engineering professors (faculty at any rank) or coordinators/directors of engineering and other related programs to submit proposals for developing an engaging online learning module to enhance global communication skills within engineering education!
Proposals are due April 4. Learn more and apply here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DBBSHTK
Assistant Program Director, Penn State Millennium Scholars Program
The Penn State Millennium Scholars Program seeks an innovative, energetic professional to fill the position of Assistant Program Director (Student Advocacy Specialist).
This position provides academic coaching and support to about 150 undergraduate students participating in the Millennium Scholars Program, with a special focus on second-year students and their unique needs. The mission of the Penn State Millennium Scholars Program (MSP) is to cultivate a diverse group of undergraduate scholars who are highly motivated to ultimately pursue doctoral degrees in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields.
The Assistant Program Director assists all MSP students in meeting program requirements through specialized counseling and instruction regarding professional development, obtaining research experience, participation in professional conferences, and preparing for strong academic outcomes.
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:
- Click "Manage Resumes" under the Career Center Job Seekers tab
- Click "Upload Resume File"
- Choose the file to be uploaded
- Click "YES" next to "submit my resume for a free evaluation from a trusted resume expert at TopResume”
- On the pop-up window, click "Evaluate My Resume"
- 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.
- "Diversity in Engineering: Managing the Workforce of the Future" by the NAE Committee on Diversity in the Engineering Workforce
"This report contains fifteen presentations from a workshop on best practices in managing diversity, hosted by the NAE Committee on Diversity in the Engineering Workforce."
- "The State of U.S. Science and Engineering 2024" by the NSF
"This summary report details key findings from the nine thematic reports that make up Indicators, providing in-depth data and information on STEM education at all degree levels; the STEM workforce; public perceptions and awareness of science and technology; U.S. and international research and development performance; invention, knowledge transfer, and innovation; and U.S. competitiveness in high-technology industries. Indicators also includes an interactive, online tool that enables state comparisons on a variety of S&E indicators. This summary report, the nine thematic reports, and the online State Indicators data tool together make up the full Indicators suite of products."
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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