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ENGINEERING STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
Every department in the College of Engineering sponsors engineering-related student activities, many of which are entirely student directed. Some groups and activities include:
- Engineering Undergraduate Student Council
- Envisioneers (student members of the Leonhard Center who work in teams with faculty and administrators to enhance engineering education.
- Local chapters of national engineering societies
- Active student chapters of professional and honorary societies in each major
- Team-based challenges for national competitions such as the SAE race car, the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, a concrete canoe race, and bridge construction
Go to Student Organizations for a complete listing of student groups affiliated with the College of Engineering.
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SPECIAL HOUSING OPTIONS
E-House, EASI First Year, and FISE House are special housing options at University Park for first-year engineering students. Special housing options are a great way to meet friends with the same interests and coursework, find out more about engineering and engineering careers, and benefit from academic and social programs. See Special Housing Options for more information about engineering-related housing programs available at University Park.
Penn State offers a variety of other special housing options at University Park that may be of interest to you. To explore these options, go to Special Living Options. Students who are attending campuses other than University Park should contact Housing and Food Services for information about their campus of choice.
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MULTICULTURAL ENGINEERING PROGRAM (MEP)
If you are a student of color, MEP welcomes you to participate in programs and activities that enhance your professional career development and leadership skills. Since our establishment in 1985, MEP has sponsored programs that create a community for African/Black Americans, Latinos/Hispanics, and American Indians/Alaskan Natives. More specifically we offer you:
- Academic Support: through the academic assistance center for individual or group study, computer usage, and tutoring; academic recognition and awards; scholarships; and the Success 101 seminar.
- Networking: through newsletters, orientation, and pre-first year programs, peer mentors, student?alumni/ae contacts, and social and cultural events.
- Career Development: including plant tours, shadowing experiences, and seminars; summer, co-op, or full-time employment opportunities; trips to regional and national conferences; and the student chapters of the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society.
As a Penn State engineer, your talent and skills will be utilized in the classroom as well as the workplace. Employers recruit on our campus for engineers from diverse cultures to meet the increasing professional demands domestically and internationally.
On the campus at large, you will find programs and special events at the Paul Robeson Cultural Center, annual cultural fairs, classes in the African and African American Studies program, fraternities and sororities, and special-interest clubs.
Go to Multicultural Engineering Program for more information.
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WOMEN IN ENGINEERING PROGRAM (WEP)
For women engineering students, WEP provides a number of programs and activities designed to make your years at Penn State enriching, productive, and rewarding. Your first contact with WEP can be during the annual WEP Orientation (WEPO) for entering students, where you'll meet and work with upper-level women students, faculty, and alumnae on computer and Internet skills, engineering design, and team building.
Throughout your academic career, you can take advantage of WEP's activities in three areas:
- Hands-on Experience: offering workshops and project courses ranging from all-women welding classes to Habitat for Humanity to the coeducational Enigmatic Engines course, in which you take apart and rebuild a 3.5 HP engine.
- Networking: including study groups for fundamental courses with upper-level women tutors, mentoring by upper-level students and e-mail mentoring by alumnae, social activities, and departmental networking groups.
- Career Development: providing résumé files to get your name out to interested companies, contact with engineering employers, and advice on résumé building and job-seeking skills.
WEP supports the student chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), one of the largest and most active student groups on campus. Approximately one fourth of our engineering undergraduate women are SWE members who participate in community service and social events; leadership, regional, and national conferences; and career development activities, such as shadowing an engineering alumna or alumnus in the workplace.
SWE also sponsors High School Days, when prospective woman engineering students can spend two days with a SWE member at Penn State to sample the engineering curriculum and campus life.
Go to Women in Engineering Program for more information.
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STUDY ABROAD
Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and unique cultural and educational experiences await you through the international study abroad program. Penn State has formal exchange programs on nearly every continent, including Australia, in countries such as England, Japan, Spain, and Italy, lasting one semester or a full academic year, as well as abbreviated summer programs. Also offered are dual language/engineering programs in France and Germany.
Global Engineering Education Exchange (GE3) programs, designed specifically for engineering students, are offered at more than fifty overseas locations, taught in either English or the language of the country. Following an academic term in this program, students are eligible for overseas internships.
The College of Engineering also offers workabroad opportunities through its Cooperative Education collaborations in a growing number of countries.
Go to Global Engineering Education for more information.
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CAREER DEVELOPMENT, COOPERATIVE EDUCATION & INTERNSHIPS
Your career options are wide open: In addition to
positions as engineers in industry and government, Penn State engineers choose
many career paths after graduation, including positions in research and development,
teaching, or other professions.
Research and development: If you want to experience
research as an undergraduate, you may arrange research projects independently
with individual faculty members or through your classes.
Teaching: Talented juniors and seniors may help
faculty in the classroom as teaching interns. As an intern, you work one-on-one
with a faculty mentor, offering classroom support, preparing and giving lectures,
and providing feedback to your mentor.
Other options, like law, management, or medicine: Engineering
logic and knowledge of how things work will help you succeed in any profession.
Future leaders must be technologically aware, and an undergraduate engineering
degree can give you an advantage in understanding problems and finding solutions.
Professional experiences: Co-op work experiences,
internships, part-time positions helping faculty with research, special career
development and workplace communication training sessions, and work-study positions
are available for students who seek experiences to enhance their education
and build an impressive résumé.
Co-op work experience: Housed within the Engineering
Career Resources & Employer Relations office, the Engineering Co-op & Internship
Program is one of the largest credit-bearing cooperative education and professional
internship programs in the country. Co-op participants complete three semesters
of paid, career-related work experience during their junior and senior years
with an employer in industry or government, alternating with semesters of classroom
study at Penn State. Internship participants complete one semester of career-related
work experience at a selected business or government entity. Students may complete
an internship as early as their second semester at Penn State, and may choose
to complete multiple internships at different companies or organizations. Students
who complete co-ops and internships gain the valuable technical, professional,
and communication skills they will need to succeed in today's workforce, which
makes them among the most highly-recruited students in the country.
The Engineering Career Resources & Employer Relations office is dedicated
to assisting students in developing professional skills through collaborative
workshops with industry on topics such as résumé writing, interview
skills, time and project management, and business ethics and etiquette. More
than 700 engineering students from all Penn State campuses complete domestic
or international short-term work experiences each year.
Engineering Career Days: A three-day event each
fall brings in hundreds of companies looking for graduates from the Colleges
of Engineering, Earth and Mineral Sciences, Science, and the Smeal College
of Business. The companies display materials; accept résumés
from students seeking internships, co-op, summer, or permanent jobs; and interview
students on campus. Even as a first-year student, you may participate in this
event to learn about different careers and the job-search process. Penn State
students are heavily recruited by industry.
Career Services: Ranked as some of the best in the
country, our career counselors help you in career planning, résumé writing,
and job hunting through seminars, courses, an information center, and on-campus
recruiting interviews. Career services include individual career counseling,
listings of employment opportunities and career-related summer jobs and internships,
workshops on interviewing skills, and a variety of informational meetings and
publications.
Go to Engineering
Career Resources & Employer Relations for more information.
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