Everything I needed to know about Penn Engineering I learned from AWE Pre-Orientation

Everything I needed to know about Penn Engineering I learned from AWE Pre-Orientation. Within that short period of time I met over half my class of fellow female engineers, found incredible role-models in the upperclassmen volunteers, attained valuable advice to help me in my classes throughout the year, and was given the opportunity to acclimate myself to my dorm, campus, and the city of Philadelphia well before my peers. 

I was so worried that when I came to campus I wouldn’t know anyone, I wouldn’t know my way around, and would just be a hot mess of awful. When I got to Pre-Orientation, I realized everyone felt the same way I did. And that was a comfort. Also, coincidentally a great common ground on which to build friendships. I look back on the pictures from Pre-Orientation, where I met so many people, and did so many things, and I’m amazed at how many pictures I can point to and say, “Oh, we have this class together,” or “Oh, I’m hanging out with her later this week.” The girls you meet at Pre-Orientation, really will become some of your best friends, study buddies, note takers in class when you’re sick, partners for group projects, hall mates, or even members of the same extracurricular activities you’re involved in. Coming from a place where I knew no one coming to Penn with me, I cannot stress enough how important and comforting it was to be able to walk into the first day of class and recognize most girls, and have friends to sit next to. 

Trolley tour of Philly!

The upperclassmen who volunteer to help with Pre-Orientation are girls who thoroughly enjoyed their time participating their freshman year, have done exceptionally well in their time at Penn, and are personable and willing to help anyone. They showed us around DRL (the most notoriously confusing building to navigate) and answered any questions we had, no matter how sheepishly we asked them, or (in retrospect) how silly they might have been, because they know we genuinely were concerned, and their answers always calmed our nerves. I remember the volunteers giving us free reign to ask any and all questions we had, and promising to give us the straight-up answer we were looking for, not necessarily the ones  they were supposed to say. They gave us invaluable advice about classes (particularly Chem 101 for engineers), how to best stay on top of the work and get help if you need it, and where the best places to study are. Throughout my freshman year, I’ve stayed in contact with many of my Pre-Orientation volunteers and they’ve helped me countless times. It’s so good to have an older friend in engineering, who can relate to what you’re going through, has been through it successfully before, and can help you out if you’re having a tough time. 

One of the things you’ll hear often when you get to Penn is, “Don’t get yourself trapped in the Penn Bubble.” Many people are so comfortable on campus, make excuses like they have too much work (okay, just kidding that one may be legitimate), that they never make time to get off campus and explore the AMAZING city of Philadelphia that is literally a 10-15 minute walk from the Engineering Quad (let’s face it, you’re there all the time anyways, you might as well take a break!). AWE Pre-Orientation has you do extremely fun activities around campus and around the city to help acclimate you more to your new surroundings, and that includes taking you out of the Penn Bubble. My year we took a trolley ride around to see the city, went to a Phillies game, toured Reading Terminal Market, and even one night split up with different volunteers and went to dinner in center city with a smaller group of girls. 

There are so many fun things to do at Penn and in Philly that AWE Pre-Orientation couldn’t possibly cover it all. It does, however, give you a great taste of what is to come in your freshman year ahead, and leaves the rest of the exploring up to you. Take advantage of every moment you get at Pre-Orientation, it was by far one of the best parts of my freshman year experience. 

Questions for Alexis?  Contact her at awe@seas.upenn.edu

Penn Bucket List

With graduation quickly approaching, it's time for Seniors to reflect on all the extraordinary accomplished they've made over the past four years and to use the last few weeks leading up to graduation to check those last couple things off their Penn Bucket List. While this Bucket List is surely to vary based off of the individual's interests, involvements, and goals, Advancing Women in Engineering has compiled a brief Penn Bucket List as a starting point.

1. Get involved with research that could change the world
2. Make a friend from every continent (except perhaps Antarctica)
3. Go to Reading Terminal Market
4. Invent and design an innovative product
5. Don a Fling tank or several for each of your Student Groups
6. Take a bite of your Styrofoam hat at Hey Day
7. Explore Philadelphia 
8. Go to a Professional Sports Game: Phillies, Flyers, Eagles, 76er's (your choice)
9. Have a favorite food cart and have the owner know your name/order
10. Join student organizations that you are passionate about
11. Be a leader in at least one of your organizations
12. Go watch a famous person speak at Penn
13. Be mentored by a professor who inspires you
14. Give back to the community 
15. Perfect your resume
16. Eat a cheese-steak from Pats or Gino's or Jim's or Tony Luke's
17. Run up the stairs of the Penn Museum like you're Rocky
18. Get floor passes to a Fling concert
19. Throw toast at a football game
20. Make life-long friends

AWE Alumni Panel

Left to Right: Panel coordinator, Hilary Grosskopf, Jeanine Gubler Heck, Janelle Johnson, Sydney Kestle, Allison Rozsits, and panel coordinator, Sophia Stylianos.

On March 27, 2013, AWE hosted an Alumni Panel for undergrads in Heilmeier Hall. Four female SEAS grads returned to campus to give advice covering topics for freshmen such as "What does it actually mean to be an engineer?" to questions for seniors like "How did Penn prepare you for your first year in the 'real world'?" or "How do you apply what you learned at Penn to your specific job?"

            The panel was made up of Jeanine Gubler Heck, CIS ’99, Janelle Johnson, CBE ’08, Sydney Kestle, BE ’11, and Allison Rozsits, BE ’12. Jeanine is currently a Senior Director in the Technology + Product group at Comcast. She has been there for 6 years, and is responsible for product efforts related to content discovery. In this role, Jeanine has led the creation of a voice recognition capability that lets customers control their TV’s through voice commands. She has also launched a cloud-enabled TV search engine, and built the company’s first TV recommendations engine. At Penn, Jeanine was involved with SWE and was also captain of the cheerleading team. After graduating from Penn, Jeanine moved to New York and worked at Gemini Systems, an IT consulting company, providing solutions to financial services organizations. After six years there, she enrolled full-time at Columbia Business School, receiving her MBA in 2007.

            Since graduation, Janelle has been employed at Philadelphia Gas Works. She originally worked in the Chemical Services Department as a Chemist until to 2012.  Currently, she works in Gas Processing Department as a Senior Staff Engineer.  She is also a part-time graduate student at Villanova University majoring in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering and will graduate in May 2013. At Penn, Janelle was involved with the National Society of Black Engineers and the Penn Band.

            After graduating from Penn, Sydney returned to her hometown of Washington DC, and is currently a second year law student at American University, Washington College of Law. After her first year, she interned with Judge Jimmie V. Reyna of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. While at the Fed Circuit, she had the opportunity to work on patent specific cases, as well as cases brought under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. In a few months, Sydney will be a summer associate at the intellectual property firm, Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garret & Dunner LLP. Specifically, I will be working in the mechanical practice group. While at Penn, Sydney worked in a tissue engineering and biomechanics lab, and was a member of Chi Omega and SWE. 

Since graduation, Allison has been working as a Product Development Engineer Associate at DePuy Synthes (a Johnson & Johnson company) in West Chester, PA. She is currently in a rotational engineering program there and has been working in product development, but will be moving to a manufacturing role in June, and will continue on to other job functions across varying geographical sites for the next 2 to 3 years. While at Penn, she was a member of AOE engineering sorority, Club Swimming, and BMES.

The panelists all offered a unique background and perspective on the field of engineering. At the end of the panel, each woman offered a take-away piece of advice. Jeanine offered a piece of advice that Billy Joel shared when he spoke to her class during her time at Penn: follow your dreams. Even if you can’t achieve them right away, know what your dreams are and make sure you’re getting there! Janelle stressed the importance of networking. In the professional sense, be sure to always reach out to people for opportunities. Additionally, as a professional engineer, she advised everyone to support each other and reminded us that we can’t do it on our own. Sydney wanted everyone to remember that your job does not define you– be sure to keep pursuing hobbies. Make sure you have an outlet so you don’t get too caught up in your job. Allison told the women in the audience to “make yourself; don’t find yourself.” Be active, not passive in your professional pursuits.

AWE hopes to continue this tradition and host an alumni panel with SEAS alum from different engineering fields annually!

Why Penn- asking the right questions to find the right fit for you

 Editor's Note: Today is the day students will find out if they were admitted to Penn's Class of 2017.  To celebrate that accomplishment, we have a blog from one of our current Penn engineers about how she choose Penn!

 

When choosing a University to spend the next four years of your life, it is important to determine what factors you are looking for and how important each one is relative to one another. Some people value the size or location of school, others are looking for a specific program or dual degree opportunity, and many want to get involved with extra-curriculars and organizations. While touring schools and going to school-sponsored information sessions, admitted students can certainly learn about some of the curriculum in the school, the history of the university, and even some various programs available to students. Though, it is also important to realize that there is a vast degree of frank knowledge that can be obtained from current students as well.

Being a Regular Decision Student and having applied to 13 universities across the country, I traveled to several admitted students days, went on countless student tours, and sat through over a dozen info sessions. The questions I found most helpful to ask were posed towards current students and included the following: What do you do for fun? What are you involved in on campus? How easy is it to get the required courses you need to graduate on time? Is Undergraduate Research common? How large is Greek Life on the campus? Where do you live and how good is the food at the dining halls?

Why did I choose Penn? Simple. The philosophy of the university and student body aligned with my personal ideology towards school, life, and growing up. I wanted to go to a university with a strong Bioengineering curriculum that would allow me to pursue science and engineering in conjunction with medicine and healthcare, fields that greatly interested me. I wanted to work hard and gain an education from one of the premier educational institutions in the world. But at the same time, I wanted to get involved and have an amazing four years learning and growing from those around me in both academic and social settings. There are clubs, organizations, societies, and teams for everyone, and the ones that I have gotten involved in over my past three years have positively impacted my life and shaped who I am today. I think I chose right for me, but it is a unique and personal choice for everyone. So ask lots of questions, be knowledgeable, and go with your gut. And if you do, you'll choose right for you.

 

Questions for Lauren?  Contact her at awe@seas.upenn.edu

What if you don't know what you want to do?

Spring semester always feels long – and it is: one week longer than fall, which may not sound like much, but somehow it is. But there is one time when spring semester feels short, and that’s when it comes to internships. The semester is now halfway done and if you don’t know what you’re doing for the summer yet, it feels like you are way behind. Even though it isn’t completely true, it always feels like everyone else knows what they are doing and you don’t.

Looking for an internship is not fun; in fact, it kind of sucks. Wharton kids have OCR all set up for them, and some engineers choose to go through that too, but not everyone wants to do finance or consulting. Sometimes though, I feel like I am in the minority among systems engineers when I say I actually want to do engineering and not go work on Wall Street or something. But on the other hand, not a lot of places have dedicated positions for systems engineers, and if you do end up getting an interview, one of the first questions always seems to be: “so, what exactly is a systems engineer?” A question that I have heard more times than I can count during my last three years at Penn, but I still don’t feel like I have a good answer to.

So where am I going with all this? Truthfully, I don’t exactly know. Maybe I’m trying to convince myself that it’s OK to have no clue about what I want to do and not be sure of how things are going to turn out. If there is one thing I have learned about looking for internships and summer jobs is that things rarely turn out the way you expect them to and that’s fine. I only recently decided what I am going to do this summer, and it was something that I applied to on a whim without much of a hope of succeeding. When I got an email to set up my first interview I actually went back to look at the job description thinking there must be some kind of mistake because why would I have ever thought it would be a good idea to apply for a position as a controls engineer? But now, I am glad I did. There have been so many times when I looked at a job description and thought it wasn’t quite right or I wasn’t fully qualified for the position, and if I had been thinking like that the day I submitted my application, I probably wouldn’t have applied. I think lots of people feel this way, in particular women. We are worried to put ourselves out there because we think we’re not actually good enough or qualified enough. But that’s silly; we are all engineers at Penn, which must count for something. And if we never put ourselves out there and take a chance we won’t get to do some of the things we most want to do.

 Patricia is a junior in Systems Engineering, Questions for Patricia? Contact her at awe@seas.upenn.edu