The Women in Engineering (WIE) Student Council is a new organization on campus this semester at the University of Illonois - Urbana-Champaign. It is comprised of women representatives from several different engineering-affiliated student organizations, such as NSBE, SHPE, SWE, Women in Physics, and also women studying engineering in general. Alpha Omega Epsilon was also asked to join, and has recently designated the WIE representative as an official officer position. Led by College of Engineering faculty and staff, the WIE Student Council meets biweekly to discuss initiatives to improve the College of Engineering, specifically to create a more friendly, empowering, and engaging environment for women in engineering. This semester, the Council has chosen to make retention its primary focus. The Council wishes to remedy some common reasons why women choose to leave the College of Engineering, either by changing majors or leaving the University entirely. The Council is still in the planning stages, but hopes to accomplish this goal through several initiatives. Such ideas are matching women with strong advisors in their department, petitioning for the option to take smaller, more inclusive classes in more challenging, large lecture subjects such as physics, and including a discussion series on “How to be Successful as a Woman in Engineering” and “Dealing with the Male Psyche.” By Alpha Omega Epsilon’s involvement, the Council Representative can collaborate ideas from the sorority, and also make changes that align with A.O.E.’s goals and objectives. Ultimately, by WIE Council working to keep women in engineering, this means more women who can be encouraged to join Alpha Omega Epsilon.

This semester the Xi Chapter held our first annual Professional Pageant and it was a huge success. When you hear ?pageant, you usually would think of long dresses, ?world peace interview questions, and bathing suits—but for the Xi chapter sisters, it meant professional dress, ?job interview questions, and resumes. Our judges were professional committee chair, Kelly Poulsen, passive (co-op) sister Khadijah Glast, and Summer Johnson, an employee at Timken Co.

For the first round of the pageant, twenty eight sisters and candidates submitted their resume to be judged. Twenty girls made it on to the next round, where they were judged on their professional attire and their handshake. The third round consisted of interviews—and ten sisters did a wonderful job answering the questions! From there, the top five girls were asked to give a personal
statement to be judged. All the scores were tallied, and Achieng Adongo was crowned ?Miss A.O.E. Professional. The runners up were Allison Kirby and Katie Dunmyer.

Overall, the pageant was a an awesome event! The professional committee did a great job of turning something professional into something that was fun and social, and hopefully this will turn into a great annual event!

The Delta Chapter is trying something new to become more professionally involved. The program is the Delta On-line Mentor Program. The goal is to pair one alumna with a sister of like personality and lifestyle. The alumnae can then help answer those tough life and career questions. The program is still currently in the makings, as we do not currently have enough alumnae for each active.

The program is convenient for alumnae in places outside of the Milwaukee in that the entire program is based on email correspondence.  All the alumnae would be required to do is contact the active they are paired with once or twice a month. The alumnae could ask questions about the chapter to get more informed and the acive can ask questions they may have at that time. This is a learning experience for all.

The Delta Chapter looks forward to the future of this program and would appreciate any additional alumnae support. Other chapters are also encouraged to participate, and any alumnae from other chapters that want to help ours are more than welcome to support the cause.