STEM club provides career success, community for women and non-binary individuals

For UNC junior Stella Prophater, the members of UNC’s Society of Women Engineers sometimes feel like sisters.

Through the club, Prophater said she was able to ask for advice on her course schedule, help others apply to the biomedical engineering major and secure a summer internship at a cosmetic manufacturing company.

Now, she’s the club’s vice president of communications.

“I just feel like we're such a welcoming environment,” she said. “All of our meetings feel so fun and stress-relieving, which is really nice.”

Since 2020, UNC SWE has supported women and non-binary students in STEM fields through professional and social events. These events range from resume workshops to career panels to social gatherings outside of Wilson Library. Though oriented for women in engineering, the club is open to all majors.

The UNC SWE chapter is one of over 400 chapters across the country that fall under the national SWE organization based in Chicago. The organization was founded in 1950 as universities began accepting female science and engineering students. Since then, SWE has worked in public policy and outreach sectors to advocate for women and minorities in STEM.

Kennita Johnson, an assistant professor in the UNC-NCSU Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, was in a SWE chapter as a graduate student. 

She became the chapter’s faculty advisor in 2020 after being approached by a group of students interested in starting it.

“What's unique about the UNC side is that there's no college of engineering at UNC,” Johnson said. “We just have our [joint] department, and so [UNC SWE] is a little different than most — what we call ‘SWE chapters’ — at other schools.”

Despite UNC SWE lacking the structure of other chapters, Johnson was impressed at the leadership and programs that the chapter developed over the years — even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

These programs continue today under UNC SWE co-presidents Jordan Saunders and Emily Foley, who are both juniors in the biomedical engineering major.

As a first-year, Foley was beginning to explore research within biomedical engineering when she attended a SWE meeting on finding research.

“I followed all the steps that they had in their PowerPoint, and I ended up being part of [ReGaiN Lab], which I'm still in today, which has been one of the largest parts of my college experience,” she said.

Foley and Saunders also had the opportunity to attend the WE24 SWE Conference in October, which featured keynote speakers and workshops to help engineering students transition into the workforce.

Saunders said she was shocked at the amount of people who attended — over 19,000 — and also said that there were many opportunities to connect with others.

“I talked to a PhD student who ran her SWE program years ago, and then she gave us tips about how to run our SWE program here,” Saunders said. “So it's just a lot of networking and meeting with like-minded individuals.”

Currently, the chapter is focused on expanding opportunities for students through increasing their funds, which will allow them to send more people to conferences to network with larger companies.

The club is also focused on outreach to high school students. They are currently collaborating with other SWE chapters across the state for “SWE Fest,” which involves sharing opportunities and resources available at each university to high school students interested in engineering. 

Aside from the club’s career opportunities, Saunders also said that UNC SWE provides a space for members to succeed in a competitive field like engineering.

“I think SWE creates a place where you're uplifting each other and supporting each other and sharing things so that you can succeed, but also so that the people around you and your peers can succeed as well,” Saunders said.

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