This past Fall 2020 semester, more than 20 New York Tech students virtually attended the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Annual Conference and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) National Convention. Each year, the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences sponsors students to attend the SWE Annual Conference which is the world’s largest conference for women engineers. Since the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) student chapter was founded at New York Tech this past year, the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences along with the Student Government Association sponsored students to attend this convention for the first time.

During these conferences, the students attended educational sessions, keynote sessions, panels, and networking events focused on learning new skills, networking with professionals and other students, and advancing marginalized groups in the STEM fields,. A major aspect of these conferences are the career fairs which feature hundreds of employers looking to hire students and soon to be graduates for internships and full time roles. Although this year the career fairs were remote, the student attendees still successfully networked and interviewed with prestigious companies for competitive internships and full-time positions across the country. Senior Mechanical Engineering major, Samantha Rivera, interviewed with companies including John Deere, MathWorks, Honeywell, and Kohler Co.

“The SWE WE20 virtual conference allowed me to immerse myself in a once in a lifetime experience. I learned more during the 10 day conference then I thought possible for an online experience. The live interactions were informative and impactful. The platform recorded each and every session giving me the unique opportunity to watch any I may have missed,” says Rivera.

The SHPE conference also proved successful for Senior Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology major, Aaron Kocienski, who networked with companies including HP, DuPont, and Caterpillar.

“The SHPE Convention created an opportunity for me to network and communicate with engineering companies I have a strong interest in. The experience was beneficial in that I now have more professional interviewing experience,” says Kocienski.

The past two semesters have challenged students to adapt to remote learning environments while facing the hardships caused by the world-wide Coronavirus pandemic. Students also face a unique and challenging career journey as networking and interviews are currently mostly remote based. The students who attended these professional conference were resilient and took on the challenge of virtual networking and interviewing and were successful in doing so. The students made professional connections, gained interviewing and networking experience, learned from experts in their fields, and even received offers for positions. Sabreena Naser, SWE chapter president at New York Tech and junior Computer Science major, received an offer from Air Products and Chemicals for a summer IT internship in Allentown, PA. As the students move forward in a remote learning and virtual professional environment, they can use the skills they learned from these conference experiences to be successful in their career journeys.