WiSE (Women in Science and Engineering) has welcomed the largest cohort of participants to date for the 2015-2016 Future Professionals Program (WiSE-FPP). This year, 51 participants were nominated by 40 different faculty members.
The 2015-16 WiSE-FPP Associates
WiSE-FPP Associates are women Ph.D. students who represent the full range of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines. They come from 15 different University departments within four colleges/schools, including Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Computer Science, Education and Information Studies. The group is equally diverse in nationality, hailing from Bangladesh, China, England, Hungary, India, Iran, Morocco, Turkey, Myanmar and the US.
WiSE-FPP provides professional development and career planning opportunities to women doctoral students. The program supports and encourages informal, peer-to-peer and faculty-student mentoring, as well as fostering a strong network. Faculty volunteers and campus experts lead professional development programs in areas such as writing, intercultural communication, conflict management and various aspects of career portfolio preparation. Associates benefit from opportunities to meet with other women scholars and professionals who stimulate greater depth in thinking about career pathways and work-life integration.
Preliminary data reveals a 93 percent retention/persistence rate (graduated or still active) for full‐time STEM doctoral women students in WiSE‐FPP since the beginning of the program in 2007. Furthermore, FPP Associates report significant impact on their own success in the areas of professional leadership skills, self‐assessment, networking, career planning, communication skills and agency. One former associate said, “Participation in the FPP program has greatly impacted my time here … I have expanded upon my career opportunities, enhanced my CV and considered new and enticing careers that I had never considered before. I have also developed friendships within FPP—with both fellow participants as well as SU professionals. Research in a doctoral program can be very secluded and isolated.”
The program is led by faculty advisors including Laura Lautz (Earth sciences), Qinru Qiu (electrical engineering and computer science), and Laura VanderDrift (psychology). They, along with professional staff, are responsible for selection of nominees, program development and mentoring the WiSE-FPP Associates.
WiSE offers multiple programs for women students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty in STEM that support career excellence and persistence in their chosen fields. The WiSE faculty directors are Dean Karin Ruhlandt (College of Arts and Sciences) and Meredith Professor Shobha Bhatia (civil and environmental engineering). Fourteen women faculty serve as faculty advisors and many more STEM faculty, female and male, volunteer. Since its conception in 1999, WiSE has been at the vanguard of providing bold support for diversity and inclusion, pipeline persistence in STEM, career capacity‐building, mentoring, community networking and interdisciplinary collaboration.
For more information about WiSE-FPP or other WiSE programs, contact Program Director Sharon Alestalo at swalesta@syr.edu. You can also read more on the WiSE website http://www.suwise.syr.edu/ or view a video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVh4Po5nG_0 .
