Welcome engineering class of 2015 to the University of Waterloo! Hopefully you are starting to get settled in here and that you are getting every experience you can out of Orientation Week!
First we would like to introduce ourselves. We are Kevin Ling (B-Soc) and Leah Allen (A-Soc), your Vice-Presidents External of the Engineering Society at the University of Waterloo. Leah is currently going into her 2B term in chemical engineering and Kevin just finished his 3A term in computer engineering and is going into his co-op term. If you don’t already know, Waterloo has two amazing Engineering Societies because of how the co-op system works. This means that Leah will be on campus with you and Engineering Society “A” in the Fall term, and Kevin will be back to run things in the Winter term with Engineering Society “B”. We are both outgoing and approachable people so feel free to contact us anytime if you have any question about our positions, the Engineering Society, or the university as a whole.
As the Vice-Presidents External, our main duty is to be a liaison between our Engineering Society and external organizations, representing YOU! We attend many conferences each year across the province and country to meet with students from other schools. This allows each school to share ideas, discuss any issues regarding undergraduate engineering students and lobby issues related to engineering. For many of the conferences there is a chance for any society members to attend and gain valuable skills to better oneself and better the Engineering Society (THAT MEANS YOU!). ACTUALLY, there is a conference just for first year students called the First Year Integration Conference (FYIC). This year, FYIC will be held in Guelph and each society gets to pick a delegation so we encourage you to APPLY!
One of the main external organizations that we work with and that hosts many conferences each year is the Engineering Student Societies’ Council of Ontario (ESSCO), which each of you are a member of. ESSCO is very much like our Engineering Society but it represents all 15 schools province-wide. Another organization we work a lot with is the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES). CFES is similar to ESSCO in that in runs a lot of similar events but on a national level, giving you the opportunity to meet engineering students from across the country.
Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO) and Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) are also professional organizations that we work with a lot. Over the next few years you will learn a lot about PEO and OSPE because they are crucial organizations representing the engineering profession in Ontario.
Another one of our main duties is outreach which includes charity events (head shave, bus push, Movember), National Engineering Month, Women in Engineering and community events (Canada Day Celebrations, Santa-Claus Parade). This year we are planning a “Meet your Executives” charity BBQ that will take place in the first few weeks of classes. We also are in charge of the Waterloo Engineering Competition (WEC) that allows students compete in design engineering and consulting divisions. This year WEC will be taking place the first or second week of November so be sure to register a team!
We are super excited that you are here at Waterloo and if you have any questions please to do not hesitate to contact us at (asoc_vpext@uwaterloo.ca or bsoc_vpext@uwaterloo.ca). Be sure to come out to the first Eng-Soc meeting of the term! There’s free food!
Leave a Reply