Service Learning
(Silver Level)
BEST of CWIT Committee Lead
For over half of 2020, I was the lead for the BEST of CWIT planning committee. BEST of CWIT is an event that the Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) hosts in the fall to ordinarily bring high school students to campus and teach them about CWIT and the computing and engineering programs that UMBC offers. I was a member of this committee since my freshman year and had the opportunity to step up to lead and organize the entire event. I was able to improve the event to create a virtual conference-style experience for students to engage with engineering and computing topics while also connecting with current college students and the UMBC community.
As lead for this committee, I felt like I was better able to give back to the CWIT community by providing outreach to high schoolers. My committee was able to inform these students about the multitude of engineering and computing opportunities they can pursue, while also showing them that they have a community as a female or minority in these fields. The BEST of CWIT event is a program that I wish I could have attended in high school so I would have learned more about engineering and the female engineering community that exists, all before I began college. By helping make this program a success, I hope to encourage more high schoolers to become involved with engineering and find a way to make a difference in the world.
I started as the lead for this program at the beginning of April 2020 and continued through October, approximately 30 weeks in total. During the Spring 2020 semester and the summer, I contributed approximately 3 hours of my time weekly between meetings with CWIT staff, committee meetings, independent planning times, and collaborative work. Once the Fall 2020 semester began, I spent roughly 5 hours per week. The week of the actual event, I spent close to 20 hours working, bringing the total number of hours I spent on this project to about 130 hours. This experience can be considered a silver level experience due to the time commitment.
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​This experience connects to my Grand Challenge of Engineer the Tools of Scientific Discovery because the program revolves around engineering and attracting new students to our engineering program at UMBC. I think that the recruitment efforts incorporated into this program will be extremely helpful in bringing new and intelligent students into the engineering community. These fresh minds will be able to help with contributions to engineering and the scientific community. During the BEST of CWIT event, I incorporated various presentations to discuss engineering and computing labs at UMBC. I think that this is an important addition to the program that can help younger students take an interest in research and ultimately help contribute towards making new research discoveries.
Reflection of Experience
Reflecting on this experience, I can say that I gained a new respect for people who organize events and the importance of teamwork. When I first started as the lead, I tried to do a lot of work by myself instead of using the committee for support. I learned that it is impossible to create a successful event on a scale this large without the support of your teammates. In the days leading up to the event, several members of the committee really stepped up and worked with me to finish all the last-minute details. I learned that I need to relinquish control of a project more and trust my teammates to create the best possible result. This year, I was able to hear more testimonials from students who attended and enjoyed our event. It was encouraging to hear how many people got something out of their experience and want to continue pursuing engineering or computing. I was able to see how the CWIT and UMBC community came together to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.
This was my first experience fully leading and planning an event, and I developed many new leadership skills. As mentioned previously, I learned the very important skills of teamwork and delegation. I would never have been able to put on this event by myself, and I had to let my teammates take the lead on different tasks. This position also required me to lead meetings with my committee and communicate with UMBC faculty members. I was a little out of my comfort zone for these tasks, but I feel confident that I improved my leadership skills because of them. I know that in the future I will be working on various teams with upper-level managers, so these communication skills will be important for me to use in future roles.
GCSP Objectives
Teamwork: My service experience contributed to the objective of being a team member because I was the leader of a team that worked together to design an event. I broke my committee into smaller groups based on interest and skill to ensure the best completion of tasks. I knew that some students on the committee would struggle with time management, so I made sure to have schedules and frequent communication to keep everyone on task.
Community Engagement: BEST of CWIT normally brings students from the local (Maryland) community to learn more about both the UMBC and CWIT communities. Since the event was virtual this year, we were able to bring in out-of-state students too. These students had the opportunity to interact with college students and build relationships with a new community of students.
Civic Agency: Through my position in this program, I worked closely with other students affiliated with CWIT which helped me to connect better within the CWIT community. There are three different programs in CWIT and I was able to communicate more with people from the programs outside of my own. I regard the mission of increasing representation in engineering as extremely important, so I am extremely glad that I was able to lead an event that advocated for this mission.
Capacity for Reflection: I think that this program is a great asset to helping students decide to come to UMBC and apply to be a part of CWIT. This experience helped me to become more confident in my leadership abilities, especially my ability to manage a group in a way that leverages people’s skills.
Commitment: I know that the BEST of CWIT program is extremely important in CWIT’s recruitment efforts and it is important to include representation from all areas of CWIT. Having committees like this one in CWIT helps the CWIT community to grow closer outside of the academic environment. I greatly enjoy everything that this program offers and I am very thankful to begin my fourth year in it.