The Women in Engineering Program, which encourages and supports young women pursuing an engineering education, opened up a Peer Mentor Program for incoming female engineering students this quarter.
The program helps to make the transition easier for incoming freshmen women, and is targeted with the goal that women will make up 20 percent of the students in the engineering program.
Women in engineering act as mentors for their younger peers, helping to answer questions and address concerns the freshmen may have.
“I think it is important for students to have a sense of connection and have a mentor that they can count on to ask questions,” said Lisa Abrams, director of the Women in Engineering Program.
“My hope is that a program like this will encourage women to go into engineering and encourage women in engineering to stay in engineering,” Abrams said.
Both incoming freshmen and upperclassman who want to participate in the program fill out a survey. Matches between mentors and partnerss are decided by the responses to the survey.
Kelly Evers, a graduate administration assistant of the Women in Engineering Program, said major hobbies and personality mainly decide the matches. “If both mentors and mentees have the same interest, they get along easily,” Evers said.
“Eighty-three pairs were matched in this year,” Abrams said.
Since early August, the mentors have been contacting incoming freshmen through e-mails or phone calls to give them an opportunity to ask questions.
Questions include what the classes are like, what activities are on campus and what the university offers overall.
“I wanted to have somebody older who has been through what I was getting into,” said Kendra Schmies, a sophomore in aeronautical and astronautical engineering.
Schmies participated in the program last year as a freshman, and became a mentor this year.
She said the program helped her to meet a lot of people and make friends, and that she was motivated to join because of a good experience with her last year.
Schmies said she is glad to help incoming freshmen, by showing them around the campus, answer questions and help in scheduling,
The mentors and partners met each other for the first time a week ago.
“It was exciting,” Schmies said. She said she built a good friendship with her partner.
“Most pairs get along socially afterwards,” Evers said.
Efforts are being made to expand the program to the computer science and art and science programs.
“The pity is that computer science students who are not majoring in engineering are not eligible for the mentor program,” said Rebecca Fiebrink, a junior in computer science engineering and music.
“We want to change that,” Fiebrink said.
Fiebrink said that the program in computer science in engineering and art and science are similar, but have different focuses.
