(153d) Pre-Professional Student Groups and Your Department: A Partnership

Every department and college have several of them: Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Engineers without Borders (EWB), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), Tau Beta Pi (τβπ), and American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). These are all student pre-professional groups, and they serve as student support programs for a variety of different purposes: mentoring, scholarship, service, and learning about the student’s future profession. Each of these student groups have their own separate missions, activities, leaders, and needs. Each group has a regional or national conference for students or a need to travel to serve others in need. Inevitably, each group will be visiting the department head or Dean to ask for financial support for their travel and other activities. The department head and Dean are happy to help where they can, but they might also ask what do these student groups do for our department and college? Can we find a way to build a better partnership between the student groups and the department/college to better meet all of our needs? Can we help them? Can they help us? Can we help them help themselves?

So what is the relationship between the department/college and these student groups? The student groups need our money and advice, and we need their labor. Thus, building a partnership benefits both sides. Is the department/college looking for content for their website and newsletters? Are prospective students looking at the website to see student activities that will entice them to apply and enroll? Do the student groups need good advising and financial resources to help them travel? Are the alumni willing to provide donations to help the students and student groups? Can we publicize their activities to help our recruiting? These mutual needs and capabilities provide the basis for a building a strong partnership.

In this presentation, the partnership between these student groups and the department/college to improve these support programs will be discussed. Partnerships between the units and the students can lead to:

• more vigorous student groups,
• additional mentoring and recruiting avenues,
• better and more frequent publicity for the units,
• more opportunities for students to get involved,
• more student leadership opportunities,
• mentoring to increase student abstract submissions to conferences (and the subsequent presentations),
• more connections with the university fundraising arm for more marketing and advancement opportunities for the student groups and units,
• better student/alumni relations, and
• more opportunities for faculty to know the students and their skills which leads to more successful recommendation letters for the students.

Start looking at student groups as partners to support the unit’s mission. This partnership actively promotes the students and their groups while helping the department or college.