Tandon-WEST Provides Prospective Students Opportunity to Network with NYU Women
The Tandon Women in Engineering, Science and Technology (Tandon-WEST) event provides prospective and admitted students the opportunity to network with and find out more about the accomplishments of NYU women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This year’s spring event was held April 16 as part of NYU’s Weekend on the Square admitted student event.
The popular event was moderated by Nicole Johnson, Assistant Dean for Opportunity Programs at NYU Tandon, who began the opening remarks with the famous quote “The world needs STEM and STEM needs women.” As economies have become more knowledge driven, the importance of individuals with STEM skills has increased. A lack of women in STEM means a lack in perspective of half of the world’s population, which puts any thriving industry competing in today’s economy at a disadvantage.
The Tandon-WEST reception allowed prospective and admitted students to connect with women at NYU Tandon to learn about their experiences at the School of Engineering first hand. At each table was seated a female faculty member, administrator, or student from NYU Tandon, and the networking activity consisted of students moving around tables to talk to the different representatives. Students were given a list of questions they could use to kickstart the conversation and received a sticker at the end of each session. Students who successfully talked to over four representatives were put into a raffle for bluetooth speakers.
Prospective student Jessica Zohlen commented, “It was a well-organized event, and there were a lot of great people and great food. I would definitely like to see what kind of other things NYU Tandon has for us, and this event helped me learn more about women in STEM and women at NYU Tandon.” Efe Itietie (Computer Engineering, Class of 2018), who served as an NYU Ambassador for the event, believes that the event was very productive, stating “The students asked a lot of questions … including individual questions on their majors, and I think it helped many of the students decide whether they want to attend NYU Tandon.”
Stef Daley, Project Manager of CSAW ‘16, who attended the event as an NYU administrator, said, “It is incredibly important to provide female students in STEM opportunities to form friendships and build alliances. The Tandon WEST event was successful in jump-starting the formation of these networks. Students are excited to be at Tandon for Fall 2016.”
The event highlighted NYU Tandon’s own breakthroughs in empowering women in STEM related fields: women currently comprise more than a quarter of the undergraduate and graduate student population at Tandon, and one in five faculty at the school are women. The school regularly hosts additional women’s initiatives, such as the West Fest and the Women in STEM Summit. The reception was sponsored by the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), which is a non-profit community of more than 650 universities, companies, non-profits, and government organizations nationwide working to increase women’s participation in computing and technology.
Lathika Chandra Mouli
New York University Shanghai
B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2017