The Drexel University Section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) started with just a handful of driven young women working to establish the Society’s first collegiate section more than 75 years ago. Today, we stand at more than 120 Society-level members, governed by 24 board members serving on eight committees. With over 400 organization members from a variety of STEM backgrounds, we welcome around 60 new students into our organization at the beginning of each school year and consistently have over 50 active members each term.
Over the years, the Drexel University Society of Women Engineers has seen huge areas of growth. Drexel SWE was awarded two Gold Mission awards in 2018 and 2019 and four Outstanding Collegiate Section Gold awards from 2013 to 2016. We also won our first Best Practices award for Awards and Recognition at the WE19 Annual Conference.
At the WeLocal Raleigh conference in 2020, Drexel SWE won the Outstanding Professional Development award and the Joint Professional/Collegiate alongside Philadelphia Professional SWE. These awards are highly competitive and awarded to members who actively spread the SWE mission. Additionally, Drexel awards Impact Awards every year. In 2017 and 2018, SWE was awarded the BOLD Student Organization of the year and in 2019, SWE was Outstanding Student Organization Program of the year.
Every year, at least one Drexel SWE member has been selected to participate in the Collegiate Leadership Institute (CLI). CLI applicants undergo a competitive selection process to be able to participate in the program. In FY23, Lizajane Bunyan, Jessica Jiang, Shaila Rao, Munazzah Al Hashim, Elizabeth Le, Jillian McCarthy, Rea Athanasiu, Khushi Patel, and Karli Akin participated in the CLI. The most prestigious program for SWE collegiates is the Leadership Development Program (LDP), in which Drexel SWE is highly represented in both the beginner and advanced tracks. The LDP is a derivation of the SWE Future Leaders (SWEFL) Program for which a small number of collegiates with great potential are selected to participate. In FY23, Cailey Ruderman and Feben Wolde-Semayat participated in the LDP Advanced Track. Our members bring back the knowledge and skills learned during CLI and LDP to Drexel SWE section members.
On campus and in the community, Drexel SWE hosts over 16 events per quarter. Hallmark events include the Lives and Lessons of the Underrepresented in STEM panel event, Evening with Industry networking opportunity, and celebratory SWE Gala. Drexel SWE also coordinates several community programs each year, including the collegiate, professional, and high school networking programs. We welcome all to attend our events and support our mission to advance women in the workplace by preparing members to be well-rounded, technically proficient engineers of an innovative world.
