Members of Polytechnic campus club Women in Science and Engineering pose together. WISE, which serves as a fellowship for female engineering and science majors, celebrates its fourth anniversary Monday. (Photo Courtesy of Kayla Burkholder)Monday marks the four-year anniversary of the Women in Science and Engineering club on the Polytechnic campus.
Members of WISE said changing attitudes toward women in a male-dominated field requires cooperation from women and men. A new group called WISE Guys plans to build on the young club’s early success.
WISE Adviser Robyn McKay said she was motivated to start the women’s club when she was in graduate school.
She heard about a camping trip for engineering majors and later found out that it was boys-only.
“It was so shocking to me that in the 21st century there would be an engineering program only for boys,” McKay said.
She went to her adviser right away because she was so upset.
“When I got there, she told me, ‘Robyn you are at the point in your career where you can’t just be mad about this, you have to do something about it,’” McKay said.
McKay started WISE with four girls. Last year, there were about 20 active members, and the number has been almost doubling every year, Mckay said.
“It’s satisfying to have the organization grow as much as it has, but there is still a lot of work to be done,” she said.
Graphic information technology junior Kayla Burkholder, the club’s president, was vice president her sophomore year.
Burkholder joined WISE her freshman year after her residence hall neighbor, then the club’s secretary, encouraged her to attend a meeting.
“I went to a meeting and I was hooked,” Burkholder said.
WISE is working with a few Girl Scouts troops. In October, the troops will travel to the Polytechnic campus for activities related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Burkholder said the WISE club members want to share why they decided to pursue the STEM field.
“(WISE) has really helped me take my ideas and dreams and catapult them,” she said.
Burkholder said at first she wanted to own a small web design company.
Now, she would like to pursue her master’s degree and start a larger multimedia and marketing firm.
“I want to own a company with more than just a few employees, and WISE showed me that I can,” she said.
Burkholder said she met many of her friends through WISE.
“It’s nice because we have the same struggles and interests,” she said. “We all enjoy engineering and enjoy designing and connect because we are like-minded.”
Burkholder said one of the favorite events she’s done with WISE was a team-building activity on a trapeze.
She said getting on a trapeze 30 feet above everyone on a platform was a great metaphor to life.
“With everyone cheering, I realized I could make that leap of faith,” she said.
She said even though she couldn’t see the people below her, she still knew they were there supporting her.
WISE is about to have a brother club on the Polytechnic campus for men who are interested in learning about change in the male-dominated field.
Operations management junior Franz Ferguson is actively participating in creating WISE Guys.
“Nothing is going to change unless we educate men on equality in the work place,” he said.
McKay has also played a big role in starting the men’s club.
“I always say you can’t expect to change a culture with 50 percent of the people on board,” McKay said. “For women to make a real difference in STEM fields, we need to have help from men too.”
Reach the reporter at hblawren@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @hannah_lawr
