Do you know what the acronyms ESSCO and CFES stand for? If you’re thinking no, read on and allow me to inform you. These organizations are the heart of the engineering societies nationally and provincially and are the voice of all engineering students.
ESSCO stands for Engineering Student Societies’ Council of Ontario and they represent 20,000+ engineering students and fifteen societies that are currently associated with ESSCO provincially, all the way from Lakehead University to the University of Windsor. ESSCO is primarily run by the ESSCO executives, a council which is comprised of the VP External representatives from each school , and a number of directorship positions. Currently in the executive positions representing University of Waterloo are Spencer McEwan, who holds the position of President, and Alessia Danelon, who holds the Vice President Services position.
So what does ESSCO really do? ESSCO is mainly a communication link between all fifteen societies, PEO, the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers and CODE (Council of Ontario Deans of Engineering). They are involved in many initiatives such as National Engineering Week, improving engineering education, supporting Women in Engineering and much more! ESSCO also holds a number of conferences throughout the year which are a great opportunity for the members to obtain skills and information that can benefit their engineering society, as well as their own professional progress. The conferences that are held by ESSCO each year are the PM (Presidents Meeting), PEO-SC (Professional Engineers of Ontario Student Conference), FYIC (First Year Integration Conference) and AGM (Annual General Meeting).
CFES stands for the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students. It is much like ESSCO, but on a national level because it facilitates the communication and exchange of information between member societies across Canada. CFES is the voice of every engineering student nationally as it provides representation on issues relevant to engineering students in Canada, and ensures that the engineering profession in Canada continues to grow. Currently CFES runs four major activities throughout the year which include CFES Congress, the Canadian Engineering Competition (CEC), Complementary Education Courses, and also provides a project magazine known as Promag.
CFES and ESSCO provide numerous opportunities for students to become more involved with these national and provincial societies. Currently Waterloo Engineering faculty and EngSoc are represented at several conferences yearly. The wonderful thing about being in engineering at University of Waterloo is that we have two societies, A-Soc and B-Soc, meaning that we have double the representation at each of these conferences. Below is a list of these several conferences and the number of delegates sent to each event for each society.
· ESSCO AGM (May/June) – 2 to 3 delegates, VP External and President
· ESSCO PM (Sept/Oct) – only VP External and President
· NCWIE (Nov) – 3 to 4 delegates and VP External
· PEO-SC (Nov) – 3 to 4 delegates and VP External
· ESSCO FYIC (Feb) – 3 to 4 delegates and VP External
· CFES Congress (Jan) – 2 to 3 delegates and VP External and President
· CFES PM (Sept/Oct) – VP External
The main point of this article is for the average engineering student to realize that CFES and ESSCO represent YOU! If you wish to get more involved please keep your eye open for opportunities to apply to be a delegate and attend these conferences. Also, please visit the ESSCO website at http://www.essco.ca/ and the CFES website at http://www.cfes.ca/ to get more information on these organizations.
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