256 Organizations WISE Guys Gals Harding students establish a club for women studying science and engineering The Women in Science and Engineering Club (WISE) was founded in 2019. WISE was created to be a club that supported women majoring in science and engineering. Junior Claire Faulkner spoke about the purpose of WISE. “The ultimate goal of WISE was to connect other women in the sciences to each other, to provide a support network and to provide a web of encouragement for all the girls who were going through their respective engineering departments or biology departments or premedical departments,” Faulkner said. The leadership of the club included a president, vice president, outreach officer, service coordinator and treasurer. Due to the busyness of students’ schedules, a strict meeting time was not held regularly. However, meetings consisted of guest speakers and breakout groups for respective majors. These small groups were designed to offer encouragement to the members. These women often felt alone in their struggles due to the male-dominated environment of STEM fields. WISE offered crucial support and encouragement to students, which empowered them to succeed. Junior Amelia Slater spoke about the encouragement she found among the women of WISE. “I was a freshman; I wasn’t an engineering major,” Slater said. “I was very scared because I didn’t see any women in the department at all. Then, I heard about WISE because my sister told me about it because she was an older student. Then, I went to the first meeting, and I met a bunch of other engineering, older upperclassmen women, and it was really nice to see them and they were like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love the class that you’re taking right now.’ It was so much fun, and so then I kept going to stuff because it was nice to have that community of women who were in the same situation I was.” As WISE continued evolving, it sought to grow the number of women in the engineering and science departments. WISE allowed women to feel confident in their positions and go out into the world not only with a successful education but also with a support system of like-minded women. Senior Katie Shanks explained that the goal of the club was to “empower women and give them a sense of community throughout the science building.” Written by Natalia Lago and Sarah Wright EXEC’S Seniors Karlie Hite (social media), Jada Parker (president), Claire Faulkner (vice president), Ally Murphy (treasurer), and Katie Shanks (outreach ) pose at a WISE meeting. These women are the office holding members of the organization. Photo by Jenna Gaessler
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