WIE camp helps freshmen women get a leg up on relationship building

On Monday, August 20, more than two hundred freshmen women got a head start on their engineering educations at the Women in Engineering Orientation Camp.

According to Angie Wolters, assistant director of Women in Engineering (WIE), the purpose of the camp was to "engage them, introduce them to the College of Engineering on campus, and give them an opportunity to all come together and create a cohort for their incoming freshman class of women." Participating in WIE camp, allows the women to move onto campus on Sunday, four days before "official" move-in day, using the extra time to get acclimated and build relationships with other freshman women.

After breakfast and early registration on Monday morning, the ladies filled Loomis Lab's giant lecture hall for a welcome session, which included orientation sessions about what college is going to be like, how to be successful in the classroom, and valuable lessons shared by current upperclassmen, in hopes that the "rookies" can avoid making the same mistakes.

Later that day, everyone was bussed 25 miles to the Allerton Park 4-H Memorial Camp in Monticello, where they spent Monday night eating s'mores around a campfire and getting to know one another. Tuesday was devoted to building relationships and taking teamwork principles they learned on the challenge course and applying them to future situations on campus and in the classroom. WIE leader Val Laguna, an engineering senior who helped plan and run the camp, felt that the camp met its goals of relationship building.

"I think it's been really successful so far," Laguna explained. "And I'm really excited for this year. All the counselors seem to be really engaged, and the campers seem to be taking initiative to get to know each other. But the campers this year seem especially engaged. I think it is a combination of how the schedule is set up, as well as the quality of the counselors that we have this year, and just general enthusiasm.

"Hopefully we're instilling the energy they'll need to step into the school year," Laguna added. "They're getting a lot of resources. We're going to do a student panel later to ask questions, and we're going to do a short presentation: 'Here are some of the things we don't want you to forget.' So I think it's going to be really good." Campers agreed that the camp had been a positive experience. Hannah Lohman, freshman in civil and environmental engineering from Geneseo, Ill., recalled that the WIE camp was recommended to her, "because it's where you meet your best friends, and it just sounded like fun...and you get to move in early." So she did.

Lohman believes that to "just have a group to be a part of" will be beneficial during her career at Illinois.

"I think it's going to be cool to be a part of a group where everyone is going through the same thing. If I have any problems with school work, then I can just come to the older students."

Dani Harkins, from Springfield, Ill., is currently in enrolled in physics (but may switch to industrial engineering). She thinks the relationships she made during the camp will be important.

"I think the whole thing with knowing who you can study with will be helpful," Harkins said. "Obviously, a lot of these people are going to be in the same classes as me, and they're mostly the same intelligence level, so we'll probably need help together. Because I'm not one that likes to admit when I need help. If I need help, I can go to a peer instead of asking a professor.""

Saachi Kuwayama, a freshman in general engineering, agreed that attending the camp was a great beginning to her career at Illinois.

"I have high expectations," Kuwayama remarked. "Everyone is so passionate about engineering. So I think that meeting everyone, and talking to everyone, and going to all the presentations that we've been to definitely gets me really excited. I think that my years here are going to be really good."

A part of the College of Engineering Undergraduate Programs Office, WIE attracts women to science and engineeirng through programs like GAMES camp, which takes place each summer on the Urbana campus.
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Contact: Angela Wolters, assistant director, Women in Engineering, College of Engineering, 217/244-7673

Writer: Elizabeth Innes, communications specialist, I-STEM Education Initiative

Photos:Elizabeth Innes and Christy Glaze, I-STEM Education Initiative

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-7716.